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O 


EDITION   DE    LUXE, 


THE   WORKS 


FRANCIS    PARKMAN. 


VOLUME    VII. 


Eight  Copies  of  the  Edition  de  Luxe  of  Francis  Parknians 
Works  have  been  printed  for  presentation. 


Wa. 


8.:. 


Oc^vd  i  C Paris. 


Figure  of  Chomedey  de  Mai  Sonne  live. 


THE  OLD  REGIME  IN 
CANADA  J-  ^  J-  J-  jk 
FRANCE  AND  ENGLAND  IN 
NORTH  AMERICA  •  Part  Fourth 
BY    FRANCIS    PARKMAN  ^  ^  ot 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES 
Vol.   I. 


BOSTON  ^  LITTLE  •  BROWN 
AND-COMPANY^MDCCCXCVII 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1874,  by 

Francis  Parkman, 
In  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington, 

Copyright,  1893, 
By  Francis  I'arkman. 

'      Copj/ru/ht,  1S97, 
By  Little,  Brown,  and  Company. 


^tttbcrsttg  Press: 
JonN  Wilson  and  Son,  Cambiudge,  U.S.A. 


1  -^  <■  / 

V.I 

TO 

GEORGE   EDWARD   ELLIS,  D.D. 


My  Deak  Dr.  Ellis  : 

When,  in  my  youth,  I  proposed  to  write  a  series  of  books 
on  the  French  in  xVnierica,  you  encouraged  the  attempt,  and 
your  helpful  kindness  has  followed  it  from  that  day  to  this. 
Pray  accept  the  dedication  of  this  volume  in  token  of  the 
grateful  regard  of 

Very  faithfully  yours, 

FRANCIS  PARKMAN. 


1740; 


NOTE   TO   REVISED   EDITION. 


When  this  book  was  written,  I  was  unable  to 
gain  access  to  certain  indispensable  papers  relat- 
ing to  the  rival  claimants  to  Acadia,  —  La  Tour 
and  D'Aunay,  —  and  therefore  deferred  all  at- 
tempts to  treat  that  subject.  The  papers  having 
at  length  come  to  hand,  the  missing  chapters  are 
supplied  in  the  present  edition,  which  also  con- 
tains some  additional  matter  of  less  prominence. 

The  title  of  "  The  Old  Regime  in  Canada  "  is 
derived  from  the  third  and  principal  of  the  three 
sections  into  which  the  book  is  divided. 

June  16,  1893. 


PREFACE. 


"  The  physiognomy  of  a  government/'  says 
De  Tocqueville,  "  can  best  be  judged  in  its  colo- 
nies, for  there  its  characteristic  traits  usually 
appear  larger  and  more  distinct.  When  I  wish 
to  judge  of  the  spirit  and  the  faults  of  the  ad- 
ministration of  Louis  XIV.,  I  must  go  to  Can- 
ada. Its  deformity  is  there  seen  as  through  a 
microscope." 

The  monarchical  administration  of  France,  at 
the  height  of  its  power  and  at  the  moment  of 
its  supreme  triumph,  stretched  an  arm  across  the 
Atlantic  and  grasped  the  North  American  conti- 
nent. This  volume  attempts  to  show  by  what 
methods  it  strove  to  make  good  its  hold,  why  it 
achieved  a  certain  kind  of  success,  and  why  it 
failed  at  last.  The  political  system  which  has 
fallen,  and  the  antagonistic  system  which  has 
prevailed,  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  offer  nothing 
but  contrasts  ;  yet  out  of  the  tomb  of  Canadian 
absolutism  come  voices  not  without  suggestion 


X  PREFACE. 

even  to  us.  Extremes  meet,  and  Autocracy  and 
Democracy  often  touch  hands,  at  least  m  their 
vices. 

The  means  of  knowing  the  Canada  of  the  past 
are  ample.  The  pen  was  always  busy  in  this 
outpost  of  the  old  monarchy.  The  king  and  the 
minister  demanded  to  know  everything ;  and 
officials  of  higli  and  low  degree,  soldiers  and 
civilians,  friends  and  foes,  poured  letters,  de- 
spatches, and  memorials,  on  both  sides  of  every 
question,  into  the  lap  of  government.  These 
masses  of  paper  have  m  the  main  survived  the 
perils  of  revolutions  and  the  incendiary  torch  of 
the  Commune.  Add  to  them  the  voluminous 
records  of  the  Superior  Council  of  Quebec,  and 
numerous  other  documents  preserved  in  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  depositories  of  Canada. 

The  governments  of  New  York  and  of  Canada 
have  caused  a  large  part  of  the  papers  in  the 
French  archives  relating  to  their  early  history  to 
be  copied  and  brought  to  America,  and  valuable 
contributions  of  material  from  the  same  quarter 
have  been  made  by  the  State  of  Massachusetts 
and  by  private  Canadian  investigators.  Never- 
theless, a  great  deal  has  still  remained  in  France 
uncopied  and  unexplored.  In  the  course  of  sev- 
eral visits  to  that  country,  I  have  availed  myself 


PREFACE.  xi 

of  these  supplementary  papers,  as  well  as  of 
those  which  had  before  been  copied,  sparing 
neither  time  nor  pains  to  explore  every  part  of 
the  field.  With  the  help  of  a  system  of  classi- 
fied notes,  I  have  collated  the  evidence  of  the 
various  writers,  and  set  down  without  reserve 
all  the  results  of  the  examination,  whether  fav- 
orable or  unfavorable.  Some  of  them  are  of  a 
character  which  I  regret,  since  they  cannot  be 
agreeable  to  persons  for  whom  I  have  a  very 
cordial  regard.  The  conclusions  drawn  from 
the  facts  may  be  matter  of  opinion,  but  it  will 
be  remembered  that  the  facts  themselves  can  be 
overthrown  only  by  overthrowing  the  evidence 
on  which  they  rest,  or  bringing  forward  counter- 
evidence  of  equal  or  greater  strength ;  and 
neither  task  will  be  found  an  easy  one.^ 

I  have  received  most  valuable  aid  in  my  inqui- 
ries from  the  great  knowledge  and  experience  of 
M.  Pierre  Margry,  Chief  of  the  Archives  of  the 
Marine  and  Colonies  at  Paris.  I  beg  also 
warmly  to  acknowledge  the  kind  offices  of 
Abbe    Henri    Raymond    Casgrain    and   Grand 

1  Those  who  wish  to  see  the  subject  from  a  point  of  view  oppo- 
site to  mine  cannot  do  better  than  consult  the  work  of  the  Jesuit 
Charlevoix,  with  the  excellent  annotation  of  Mr.  Shea.  (History 
and  General  Description  of  New  France,  by  the  Rev.  P.  F.  X.  de 
Charlevoix,  S.J.,  translated  with  notes  by  John  Gilmary  Shea.  6 
vols.    New  York:  1866-1872.) 


xii  PREFACE. 

Vicar  Cazeau,  of  Quebec  ;  together  with  those  of 
James  Le  Moine,  Esq.,  M.  Eugene  Tache,  Hon. 
P.  J.  0.  Chauveau,  and  other  eminent  Canadians, 
and  Henry  Harrisse,  Esq. 

The  few  extracts  from  original  documents 
which  are  printed  in  the  Appendix  may  serve  as 
samples  of  the  material  out  of  which  the  work 
has  been  constructed.  In  some  instances  their 
testimony  might  be  multiplied  twenty-fold. 
When  the  place  of  deposit  of  the  documents 
cited  in  the  margin  is  not  otherwise  indicated, 
they  will,  in  nearly  all  cases,  be  found  in  the 
Archives  of  the  Marine  and  Colonies. 

In  the  present  book  we  examine  the  political 
and  social  machine ;  in  the  next  volume  of  the 
series  we  shall  see  this  machine  in  action. 

Boston,  July  1,  1874. 


COHTEKTS. 


SECTION  FIRST. 
THE  FEUDAL  CHIEFS   OF  ACADIA. 

CHAPTER  I. 

1497-1643. 

LA    TOUR   AND   d'aUNAY. 

Page 
The  Acadian  Quarrel.  —  Biencourt.  —  Claude  and  Charles  de  la 
Tour.  —  Sir  William  Alexander.  —  Claude  de  Razilly. — 
Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay.  —  Cape  Sable.  —  Port 
Royal.  —  The  Heretics  of  Boston  and  Plymouth.  —  Madame 
de  la  Tour.  —  War  and  Litigation.  —  La  Tour  worsted  :  he 
asks  help  from  the  Boston  Puritans 3 

CHAPTER   II. 
1643-1645. 

LA    TOUK   AND    THE    PURITANS. 

La  Tour  at  Boston:  he  meets  Winthrop.  —  Boston  in  1643. — 
Training  Day.  —  An  Alarm.  —  La  Tour's  Bargain.  —  Doubts 
and  Disputes.  —  The  Allies  sail.  —  La  Tour  and  Endicott.  — 
D'Aunay's  Overture  to  the  Puritans.  —  Marie's  Mission-   .     .      21 

CHAPTER   IIL 
1645-1710. 

THE    VICTOR   VANQUISHED. 

D'Aunay's  Envoys :  their  Reception  at  Boston.  —  Winthrop 
and  his  "  Papist "  Guests.  —  Reconciliation.  —  Treaty.  —  Be- 
havior of  La  Tour.  ^  Royal  Favors  to  D'Aunay :  his 
Hopes;  his  Death;  his  Character.  —  Conduct  of  the  Court 


xiv  CONTENTS. 

Page 

towards  him.  —  Intrigues  of  La  Tour.  —  Madame  D'Aunay. 
—  La  Tour  marries  her.  —  Children  of  D'Aunay.  —  Descend- 
ants of  La  Tour 41 


SECTION   SECOND. 
CANADA    A    MISSION. 

CHAPTER  IV. 

1653-1658. 

THE   JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA. 

The  Iroquois  War.  —  Father  Poncet :  his  Adventures.  —  Jesuit 
Boldness.  —  Le  Moyne's  Mission.  —  Chaumonot  and  Dablon. 

—  Iroquois  Ferocity.  —  The  Mohawk  Kidnappers.  —  Critical 
Position.  —  The  Colony  of  Onondaga.  —  Speech  of  Chau- 
monot. —  Omens  of  Destruction.  —  Device  of  the  Jesuits.  — 
The  Medicine  Feast.  —  The  Escape 54 

CHAPTER  V. 
1642-1661. 

THE    HOLY    WARS   OF    MONTREAL. 

Dauversiere.  —  Mauce  and  Bourgeoys.  —  Miracle.  —  A  Pious  De- 
faulter.—  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian.  —  Montreal  in  1659.  —  The 
Hospital  Nuns.  —  The  Nuns  and  the  Iroquois.  —  More  Mira- 
cles.—  The  Murdered  Priests. — Brigeac  and  Closse.  —  Sol- 
diers of  the  Holy  Family 96 

CHAPTER  VI. 

1660,  1661. 

THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT. 

Suffering  and  Terror.  —  Fran(;ois  llertel. — The  Captive  Wolf. 

—  The  Tlireatened  Invasion.  —  Daulac  des  Ormeaux.  —  The 
Adventurers  at  the  Long  Saut.  —  The  Attack.  —  A  Desperate 
Defence.  —  A  Final  Assault.  —  The  Fort  taken 118 


CONTENTS.  XV 

CHAPTER  VII. 

1657-1668. 

the  disputed  bisuopric. 

Page 
Domestic    Strife.  —  Jesuit    and    Sulpitian.  —  Abbe  Queylus.  — 

Francois  de  Laval.  —  The  Zealots  of  Caen.  —  Gallicau  and 
Ultramontane.  —  The  Rival  Claimants.  —  Storm  at  Quebec. 
Laval  Triumphant 140 

CHAPTER  VIIL 
1659,  1G60. 

LAVAL   AND   ARGENSON. 

Fran9ois  de  Laval :  his  Position  and  Character.  —  Arrival  of 
Argeusou.  —  The  Quarrel 161 

CHAPTER  IX. 

1658-1063. 

LAVAL    AND    AVA0GOUR. 

Reception  of  Argeuson  :  his  Difficulties ;  his  Recall.  —  Dubois 
d'Avaugour.  —  The  Braudy  Quarrel.  —  Distress  of  Laval. 
—  Portents.  —  The  Earthquake 173 

CHAPTER   X. 

1661-1664. 

LAVAL   AND   DDMESML. 

Peroune  Dumesuil.  —  The  Old  Council. — Alleged  Murder. — 
The  New  Council.  —  Bourdon  and  Villeray.  —  Strong  Meas- 
ures.—  Escape  of  Dumesuil.  —  Views  of  Colbert  .     ...  189 

CHAPTER  XL 
1657-1665. 

LAVAL   AND   utzY. 

The  Bi.shop's  Choice.  —  A  Military  Zealot.  —  Hopeful  Begin- 
nings. —  Signs  of  Storm.  —  The  Quarrel.  —  Distress  of  Mezy  : 
he  refuses  to  yield ;  his  Defeat  and  Death 204 


xvi  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XII. 

1062-1680. 

laval  and  the  seminary. 

Page 
Laval's  Visit  to  Court.  —  Tlie  Seminary.  —  Zeal  of  the  Bishop  : 

his  Eulogists.  —  Churc!:  aud  State.  —  Attitude  of  Laval      .     .219 


SECTION   THIRD. 

THE   COLONY   AND  THE   KING. 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
1661-1665. 

ROYAL    INTERVENTION. 

Fontainebleau.  —  Louis  XIV.  —  Colbert.  —  The  Compauy  of  the 
West.  —  Evil  Omens.  —  Action  of  the  King. — Tracy,  Cour- 
celle,  and  Talou. — The  Regini'^nt  of  Carignau-Salieres. — 
Tracy  at  Quebec.  —  Miracles.  —  A  Holy  War 229 

CHAPTER   XIV. 

1666,  1667. 

THE    MOHAWKS   CHASTISED. 

Courcelle's  March :  his  Failure  and  Return.  —  CourceUe  and 
the  Jesuits.  —  Mohawk  Treachery.  —  Tracy's  Expedition. — 
Burning  of  the  Mohawk  Towns.  —  French  and  English.  — 
DoUier  de  Casson  at  St.  Anne.  —  Peace.  —  The  Jesuits  aud 
the  Iroquois 246 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS. 


VOLUME  ONE. 
Figure  of  Chomedey  de  Maisonnextve  ....    Frontbpiece 

From  the  Maisonneuve  Monument  by  Philippe  Hubert,  in  the  Place 
D'Armes,  Montreal. 

Canada  and    Ad.tacent   Countries    towards    the 

Close  of  the  Seventeenth  Century    ....    Page    3 

La  Tour  and  the  Governor "       22 

Drawn  by  B.  West  Clinedinst. 

Marguerite  Bourgeoys "       96 

From  an  engraving  by  L   Massard. 

JliROME    Le    RoYER    DE    LA    DAUVERSlfeRE "         98 

From  an  engraving  by  L.  Massard. 

The  Death  of  Dollard "     136 

Bas-relief  from  the  Maisonneuve  Monument  by  Philippe  Hi5bert,  in 
the  Place  D'Armes,  Montreal. 

Dubois  d'Avaugour "     178 

From  an  engraving  by  P.  Auljry,  in  the  Bibliothfeque  Nationale. 


THE   OLD  REGIME  IN  CANADA. 


CANADA 

AND  AJMxI€K:^T  €©tC:jS-Tffi][ffiS 

\V  CENTURY. 


%**' 


SECTION  FIRST. 
THE  FEUDAL  CHIEFS  OF  ACADIA. 


CHAPTER   I. 

1497-1643. 

LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY. 

The  Acadian  Quarrel.  —  Biencourt — Claude  and  Charles 
DE  LA  Tour.  —  Sir  William  Alexander.  —  Claude  de  Ra- 
ziLLY.  —  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Chaknisat.  —  Cape 
Sable.  —  Port  Royal.  —  The  Heretics  of  Boston  and  Ply- 
mouth.—  Madame  de  la  Tour.  —  War  and  Litigation.  —  La 
Tour  worsted:   he  asks  Help  from  the  Boston  Puritans. 

With  the  opening  of  the  seventeenth  century- 
began  that  contest  for  the  ownership  of  North 
America  which  was  to  remain  undecided  for  a  century 
and  a  half.  England  claimed  the  continent  through 
the  discovery  by  the  Cabots  in  1497  and  1498,  and 
France  claimed  it  through  the  voyage  of  Verrazzano 
in  1524.  Each  resented  the  claim  of  the  other;  and 
each  snatched  such  fragments  of  the  prize  as  she 
could  reach,  and  kept  them  if  she  could.  In  1604, 
Henry  IV.  of  France  gave  to  De  Monts  all  America 
from  the  40th  to  the  46th  degree  of  north  latitude, 


4  LA   TOUR   AND   D'AUNAY.  [1604-29. 

including  the  sites  of  Philadelphia  on  the  one  hand 
and  Montreal  on  the  other ;  ^  while,  eight  years  after, 
Louis  XIII.  gave  to  Madame  de  Guercheville  and 
the  Jesuits  the  whole  continent  from  Florida  to  the 
St.  La^vrence,  —  that  is,  the  whole  of  the  future 
British  colonies.  Again,  in  1621,  James  I.  of  Eng- 
land made  over  a  part  of  this  generous  domain  to  a 
subject  of  his  own.  Sir  William  Alexander,  —  to 
whom  he  gave,  under  the  name  of  Nova  Scotia,  the 
peninsula  which  is  now  so  called,  together  with  a 
vast  adjacent  wilderness,  to  be  held  forever  as  a  fief 
of  the  Scottish  Crown.^  Sir  William,  not  yet  satis- 
fied, soon  got  an  additional  grant  of  the  "  River  and 
Gulf  of  Canada,"  along  with  a  belt  of  land  three 
hundred  miles  wide,  reaching  across  the  continent.  ^ 
Thus  the  King  of  France  gave  to  Frenchmen  the 
sites  of  Boston,  New  York,  and  Washington,  and 
the  King  of  England  gave  to  a  Scotchman  the  sites 
of  Quebec  and  Montreal.  But  while  the  seeds  of 
international  war  were  thus  sown  broadcast  over  the 
continent,  an  obscure  corner  of  the  vast  regions  in 
dispute  became  the  scene  of  an  intestine  strife  like 
the  bloody  conflicts  of  two  feudal  chiefs  in  the  depths 
of  the  Middle  Ages. 

After  the  lawless  inroads  of  Argall,  the  French, 
with  young   Biencourt  at  their  head,   still  kept  a 

1  See  "  Pioneers  of  France  in  the  New  World,"  ii.  65. 

2  Charter  of  New  Scotland  in  favour  of  Sir  William  Alexander. 

^  Charter  of  the  Country  and  Lordship  of  Canada  in  America,  2  Feb., 
1628-29,  in  Publications  of  the  Prince  Societi/,  1873. 


1629.]  YOUNG  LA  TOUR.  6 

feeble  hold  on  Acadia.  After  the  death  of  his  father, 
Poutriiicourt,  Biencourt  took  his  name,  by  which 
thenceforth  he  is  usually  known.  In  his  distress  he 
lived  much  like  an  Indian,  roaming  the  woods  with 
a  few  followers,  and  subsisting  on  fish,  game,  roots, 
and  lichens.  He  seems,  however,  to  have  found 
means  to  build  a  small  fort  among  the  rocks  and  fogs 
of  Cape  Sable.  He  named  it  Fort  Lomeron,  and 
here  he  appears  to  have  maintained  himself  for  a 
time  by  fishing  and  the  fur -trade. 

Many  years  before,  a  French  boy  of  fourteen 
years,  Charles  Saint-Etienne  de  la  Tour,  was  brought 
to  Acadia  by  his  father,  Claude  de  la  Tour,  where 
he  became  attached  to  the  service  of  Biencourt 
(Poutrincourt),  and,  as  he  himself  says,  served  as 
his  ensign  and  lieutenant.  He  says,  further,  that 
Biencourt  on  his  death  left  him  all  his  property  in 
Acadia.  It  was  thus,  it  seems,  that  La  Tour  became 
owner  of  Fort  Lomeron  and  its  dependencies  at  Cape 
Sable,  whereupon  he  begged  the  King  to  give  him 
help  against  his  enemies,  especially  the  English, 
who,  as  he  thought,  meant  to  seize  the  country;  and 
he  begged  also  for  a  commission  to  command  in 
Acadia  for  his  Majesty.^ 

In  fact,  Sir  William  Alexander  soon  tried  to  dis- 
possess him  and  seize  his  fort.  Charles  de  la  Tour's 
father  had  been  captured  at  sea  by  the  privateer 
"Kirke,"  and  carried  to  England.  Here,  being  a 
widower,  he  married  a  lady  of  honor  of  the  Queen, 

1  La  Tour  au  Roy,  25  July,  1627. 


6  LA   TOUR   AND    D'AUNAY.  [1629. 

and,    being    a    Protestant,    renounced    his    French 
allegiance. 

Alexander  made  Mm  a  baronet  of  Nova  Scotia,  a 
new  title  which  King  James  had  authorized  Sir 
William  to  confer  on  persons  of  consideration  aiding 
him  in  his  work  of  colonizing  Acadia.  Alexander 
now  fitted  out  two  ships,  with  which  he  sent  the 
elder  La  Tour  to  Cape  Sable.  On  arriving,  the 
father,  says  the  story,  made  the  most  brilliant  offers 
to  his  son  if  he  would  give  up  Fort  Lomdron  to  the 
English,  —  to  which  young  La  Tour  is  reported  to 
have  answered  in  a  burst  of  patriotism,  that  he  would 
take  no  favors  except  from  his  sovereign,  the  King 
of  France.  On  tliis,  the  English  are  said  to  have 
attacked  the  fort,  and  to  have  been  beaten  off.  As 
the  elder  La  Tour  could  not  keep  his  promise  to 
deliver  the  place  to  the  English,  they  would  have  no 
more  to  do  with  him,  on  which  his  dutiful  son  offered 
him  an  asylum  under  condition  that  he  should  never 
enter  the  fort.  A  house  was  built  for  him  outside 
the  ramparts;  and  here  the  trader,  Nicolas  Denys, 
found  him  in  1635.  It  is  Denys  who  tells  the  above 
story,  ^  which  he  probably  got  from  the  younger  La 
Tour,  —  and  which,  as  he  tells  it,  is  inconsistent 
with  the  known  character  of  its  pretended  hero,  who 
was  no  model  of  loyalty  to  his  king,  being  a  chameleon 
whose  principles  took  the  color  of  his  interests. 
Denys  says,  further,  that  the  elder  La  Tour  had 
been  invested  with  the  Order  of  the  Garter,  and  that 

*  Denys,  Description  geographique  et  historique. 


1630.]  THE   BROTHERS   KIRKE.  7 

the  same  dignity  was  offered  to  his  son;  which  is 
absurd.  The  truth  is,  that  Sir  William  Alexander, 
thinking  that  the  two  La  Tours  might  be  useful  to 
him,  made  them  both  baronets  of  Nova  Scotia.^ 

Young  La  Tour,  while  begging  Louis  XIII.  for  a 
commission  to  command  in  Acadia,  got  from  Sir 
William  Alexander  not  only  the  title  of  baronet,  but 
also  a  large  grant  of  land  at  and  near  Cape  Sable,  to 
be  held  as  a  fief  of  the  Scottish  Crown. ^  Again,  he 
got  from  the  French  King  a  grant  of  land  on  the  river 
St.  John,  and,  to  make  assurance  doubly  sure,  got 
leave  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  occupy  it.^ 
This  he  soon  did,  and  built  a  fort  near  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  not  far  from  the  present  city  of  St.  John. 

Meanwhile  the  French  had  made  a  lodgment  on 
the  rock  of  Quebec,  and  not  many  years  after,  all 
North  America  from  Florida  to  the  Arctic  circle, 
and  from  Newfoundland  to  the  springs  of  the  St. 
Lawrence,  was  given  by  King  Louis  to  the  Company 
of  New  France,  with  Richelieu  at  its  head.*  Sir 
William  Alexander,  jealous  of  this  powerful  rivalry, 
caused  a  private  expedition  to  be  fitted  out  under  the 
brothers  Kirke.     It  succeeded,  and  the  French  settle- 

^  Grant  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  Sir  Claude  de  St.  Etienne 
(de  la  Tour),  30  Nov.,  1629.  Ibid,  to  Charles  de  St.  Etienne,  Esq., 
Seigneur  de  St.  Denniscourt  and  Baigneux,  12  May,  1630.  (Hazard, 
State  Papers,  i.  294, 298.)  The  names  of  both  father  and  son  appear 
on  the  list  of  baronets  of  Nova  Scotia. 

2  Patent  from  Sir  William  Alexander  to  Claude  and  Charles  de  la 
Tour,  30  April,  1630. 

3  Williamson,  History  of  Maine,  i.  246. 
*  See  "  Pioneers  of  France,"  ii.  258. 


8  LA   TOUR   AND   D'AUNAY.  [1632. 

ments  in  Acadia  and  Canada  were  transferred  by 
conquest  to  England.  England  soon  gave  them 
back  by  the  treaty  of  St.  Germain ;  ^  and  Claude  de 
Razilly,  a  Knight  of  Malta,  was  charged  to  take  pos- 
session of  them  in  the  name  of  King  Louis.^  Full 
powers  were  given  him  over  the  restored  domains, 
together  with  grants  of  Acadian  lands  for  himself.^ 
^-'Razilly  reached  Port  Royal  in  August,  1632,  with 
three  hundred  men,  and  the  Scotch  colony  planted 
there  by  Alexander  gave  up  the  place  in  obedience  to 
an  order  from  the  King  of  England.  Unfortunately 
for  Charles  de  la  Tour,  Razilly  brought  with  him  an 
officer  destined  to  become  La  Tour's  worst  enemy. 
Tliis  was  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  a 
gentleman  of  birth  and  character,  who  acted  as  his 
commander's  man  of  trust,  and  who,  in  Razilly 's 
name,  presently  took  possession  of  such  other  feeble 
English  and  Scotch  settlements  as  had  been  begun 
by  Alexander  or  the  people  of  New  England  along 
the  coasts  of  Nova  Scotia  and  Maine.  This  placed 
the  French  Crown  and  the  Company  of  New  France 
in  sole  possession  for  a  time  of  the  region  then  called 
Acadia. 

When  Acadia  was  restored  to  France,  La  Tour's 

1  Traite  de  St.  Germain  en  Lmje,  29  Mars,  1632,  Article  3.  For 
reasons  of  the  restitution,  see  "  Pioneers  of  France,"  ii.  272. 

2  Convention  avec  le  Sieur  de  Razilhj  pour  aller  refevoir  la  Restitution 
du  Port  Boyal,  etc.,  27  Mars,  1632.  Commission  du  Sieur  de  Razilly, 
10  May,  1632. 

8  Concession  de  la  riviere  et  baye  Saincte  Croix  a  M.  de  Razilly,  29 
May,  1632. 


1635.]  THE   TWO   RIVALS.  9 

English  title  to  his  lands  at  Cape  Sable  became 
worthless.  He  hastened  to  Paris  to  fortify  his  posi- 
tion; and,  suppressing  his  dallyings  with  England 
and  Sir  William  Alexander,  he  succeeded  not  only  in 
getting  an  extensive  grant  of  lands  at  Cape  Sable, 
but  also  the  title  of  lieutenant-general  for  the  King  in 
Fort  Lomdron  and  its  dependencies,^  and  commander 
at  Cape  Sable  for  the  Company  of  New  France. 

Razilly,  who  represented  the  King  in  Acadia,  died 
in  1635,  and  left  his  authority  to  D'Aunay  Charnisay, 
his  relative  and  second  in  command.  D'Aunay  made  > 
his  headquarters  at  Port  Royal;  and  nobody  dis- 
puted his  authority  except  La  Tour,  who  pretended 
to  be  independent  of  him  in  virtue  of  his  commission 
from  the  Crown  and  his  grant  from  the  Company. 
Hence  rose  dissensions  that  grew  at  last  into  war. 

The  two  rivals  differed  widely  in  position  and 
qualities.  Charles  de  Menou,  Seigneur  d'Aunay 
Charnisay,  came  of  an  old  and  distinguished  family 
of  Touraine,^  and  he  prided  himself  above  all  things 
on   his   character  of  gentilhomme  frangais.     Charles 

1  Revocation  de  la  Commission  du  Sieur  Charles  de  Saint-Etienne, 
Sieur  de  la  Tour,  23  Fev.,  1641. 

2  The  modern  representative  of  this  family,  Comte  Jules  de 
Menou,  is  the  author  of  a  remarkable  manuscript  book,  written 
from  family  papers  and  official  documents,  and  entitled  L'Acadie 
colonisee  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Cliarnisay.  I  have  followed 
Comte  de  Menou's  spelling  of  the  name.  It  is  often  written 
D'Aulnay,  and  by  New  England  writers  D'Aulney.  The  manu- 
script just  mentioned  is  in  my  possession.  Comte  de  Menou  is  also 
the  author  of  a  printed  work  called  Preuves  de  I'Histoire  de  la 
Maison  de  Menou. 


10  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1635. 

Saiut-Etienne  de  la  Tour  was  of  less  conspicuous 
lineage.^  In  fact,  his  father,  Claude  de  la  Tour,  is 
said  by  his  enemies  to  have  been  at  one  time  so 
reduced  in  circumstances  that  he  carried  on  the  trade 
of  a  mason  in  Rue  St.  Germain  at  Paris.  The  son, 
however,  is  called  gcntilhomme  cVune  naissance  dis- 
tinguSe,  both  in  papers  of  the  court  and  in  a  legal 
document  drawn  up  in  the  interest  of  his  children. 
As  he  came  to  Acadia  when  a  boy  he  could  have  had 
little  education,  and  both  he  and  D'Aunay  carried 
on  trade,  —  which  in  France  would  have  derogated 
from  their  claims  as  gentlemen,  though  in  America 
the  fur-trade  was  not  held  inconsistent  with  noUesse. 

Of  La  Tour's  little  kingdom  at  Cape  Sable,  with 
its  rocks,  fogs,  and  breakers,  its  seal-haunted  islets 
and  iron-bound  shores  guarded  by  Fort  Lom^ron, 
we  have  but  dim  and  uncertain  glimpses.  After  the 
death  of  Biencourt,  La  Tour  is  said  to  have  roamed 
the  woods  with  eighteen  or  twenty  men,  "living  a 
vagabond  life  with  no  exercise  of  religion." 2  He 
himself  admits  that  he  was  forced  to  live  like  the 
Indians,  as  did  Biencourt  before  him.^  Better  times 
had  come,    and  he   was    now  commander  of    Fort 

1  The  true  surname  of  La  Tour's  family,  which  belonged  to  the 
neighborhood  of  Evreux,  in  Normandy,  was  Turgis.  The  designa- 
tion of  La  Tour  was  probably  derived  from  the  name  of  some 
family  estate,  after  a  custom  common  in  France  under  the  old 
regime.  The  Turgis's  arms  were  "  d'or  au  chevron  de  sable,  accom- 
pagne'  de  trois  palmes  de  meme." 

2  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay 
Charnisay. 

8  La  Tour  au  Roy,  25  Juillet,  1627. 


1641.]  PORT  ROYAL.  11 

Lom^ron,  —  or,  as  he  called  it,  Fort  La  Tour,  —  with 
a  few  Frenchmen  and  abundance  of  Micmac  Indians. 
His  next  neighbor  was  the  adventurer  Nicolas  Denys, 
who  with  a  view  to  the  timber  trade  had  settled 
himself  with  twelve  men  on  a  small  river  a  few 
leagues  distant.  Here  Razilly  had  once  made  him  a 
visit,  and  was  entertained  under  a  tent  of  boughs 
with  a  sylvan  feast  of  wild  pigeons,  brant,  teal, 
woodcock,  snipe,  and  larks,  cheered  by  profuse  white 
wine  and  claret,  and  followed  by  a  dessert  of  wild 
raspberries.  1 

On  the  other  side  of  the  Acadian  peninsula 
D'Aunay  reigned  at  Port  Royal  like  a  feudal  lord, 
which  in  fact  he  was.  Denys,  who  did  not  like  him, 
says  that  he  wanted  only  to  rule,  and  treated  his 
settlers  like  slaves ;  but  this,  even  if  true  at  the  time, 
did  not  always  remain  so.  D'Aunay  went  to  France 
in  1641,  and  brought  out,  at  his  own  charge,  twenty 
families  to  people  his  seigniory. ^  He  had  already 
brought  out  a  wife,  having  espoused  Jeanne  Molin 
(or  Motin),  daughter  of  the  Seigneur  de  Courcelles. 
What  with  old  settlers  and  new,  about  forty  families 
were  gathered  at  Port  Royal  and  on  the  river 
Annapolis,  and  over  these  D'Aunay  ruled  like  a 
feudal  Robinson  Crusoe.^  He  gave  each  colonist  a 
farm  charged  with  a  perpetual  rent  of  one  sou  an 
arpent,  or  French  acre.     The  houses  of  the  settlers 

^  Denys,  Description  geographique  et  historique. 

2  Eameau,  Une  Colonie  feodale  en  Amerique,  i.  93  (ed.  1889). 

8  Ibid.,  i.  96,  97. 


12  LA   TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1641. 

were  log  cabins,  and  the  manor-house  of  their  lord 
was  a  larger  building  of  the  same  kind.  The  most 
pressing  need  was  of  defence,  and  D'Aunay  lost  no 
time  in  repairing  and  reconstructing  the  old  fort  on 
the  point  between  Allen's  River  and  the  Annapolis. 
He  helped  his  tenants  at  their  work;  and  his  con- 
fessor describes  him  as  returning  to  his  rough  manor- 
house  on  a  wet  day,  drenched  with  rain  and 
bespattered  with  mud,  but  in  perfect  good  humor, 
after  helping  some  of  the  inhabitants  to  mark  out  a 
jBeld.  The  confessor  declares  that  during  the  eleven 
months  of  his  acquaintance  with  him  he  never  heard 
him  speak  ill  of  anybody  whatever,  a  statement  which 
must  probably  be  taken  with  allowance.  Yet  this 
proud  scion  of  a  noble  stock  seems  to  have  given 
himself  with  good  grace  to  the  rough  labors  of  the 
frontiersman;  while  Father  Ignace,  the  Capuchin 
friar,  praises  him  for  the  merit,  transcendent  in 
clerical  eyes,  of  constant  attendance  at  mass  and  fre- 
quent confession.^ 

With  his  neighbors,  the  Micmac  Indians,  he  was 
on  the  best  of  terms.  He  supplied  their  needs,  and 
they  brought  him  the  furs  that  enabled  him  in  some 
measure  to  bear  the  heavy  charges  of  an  establish- 
ment that  could  not  for  many  years  be  self-support- 
ing. In  a  single  year  the  Indians  are  said  to  have 
brought  three  thousand  moose-skins  to  Port  Royal, 
besides  beaver  and  other  valuable  furs.  Yet,  from 
a   commercial    point    of    view,    D'Aunay    did    not 

^  Lettre  du  Pere  Ignace  de  Paris,  Capucin,  6  Aoust,  1653. 


1642.]  PORT  ROYAL.  13 

prosper.  He  had  sold  or  mortgaged  his  estates  in 
France,  borrowed  large  sums,  built  sliips,  bought 
cannon,  levied  soldiers,  and  brought  over  immigrants. 
He  is  reported  to  have  had  three  hundred  fighting 
men  at  his  principal  station,  and  sixty  cannon 
mounted  on  his  ships  and  forts;  for  besides  Port 
Royal  he  had  two  or  three  smaller  establishments.^ 

Port  Royal  was  a  scene  for  an  artist,  with  its  fort; 
its  soldiers  in  breastplate  and  morion,  armed  with 
pike,  halberd,  or  matchlock ;  its  manor-house  of  logs, 
and  its  seminary  of  like  construction;  its  twelve 
Capuchin  friars,  with  cowled  heads,  sandalled  feet, 
and  the  cord  of  Saint  Francis;  the  birch  canoes  of 
Micmac  and  Abenaki  Indians  lying  along  the  strand, 
and  their  feathered  and  painted  owners  lounging 
about  the  place  or  dozing  around  their  wigwam  fires. 
It  was  medisevalism  married  to  primeval  savagery. 
The  friars  were  supported  by  a  fund  supplied  by 
Richelieu,  and  their  chief  business  was  to  convert  the 
Indians  into  vassals  of  France,  the  Church,  and  the 
Chevalier  d'Aunay.  Hard  by  was  a  wooden  chapel, 
where  the  seignior  knelt  in  dutiful  observance  of 
every  rite,  and  where,  under  a  stone  chiselled  with 
his  ancient  scutcheon,  one  of  his  children  lay  buried. 
In  the  fort  he  had  not  forgotten  to  provide  a  dungeon 
for  his  enemies. 

1  Certificat  a  J'egard  de  M.  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  signe  Michel 
Boudrot,  Lieutenmit  General  en  VAcadie,  et  autres,  anciens  habitans  au 
pays,  5  Oct.,  1687.  Lettre  du  Roy  de  gouverneur  et  lieutenant  general  es 
castes  de  VAcadie  pour  Charles  de  Menou,  Sieur  d'Aulnay  Charnisay, 
Fevrier,  1647. 


14  LA  TOUR  AND   D'AUNAY.  [1642. 

The  worst  of  these  was  Charles  de  la  Tour. 
Before  the  time  of  Razilly  and  his  successor 
D'Aunay,  La  Tour  had  felt  himself  the  chief  man  in 
Acadia ;  but  now  he  was  confronted  by  a  rival  higher 
in  rank,  superior  in  resources  and  court  influence, 
proud,  ambitious,  and  masterful.  ^  He  was  bitterly 
jealous  of  D'Aunay;  and,  to  strengthen  himself 
against  so  formidable  a  neighbor,  he  got  from  the 
Company  of  New  France  the  grant  of  a  tract  of  land 
at  the  mouth  of  the  river  St,  John,  where  he  built  a 
fort  and  called  it  after  his  own  name,  though  it  was 
better  known  as  Fort  St.  Jean.'^  Thither  he  removed 
from  his  old  post  at  Cape  Sable,  and  Fort  St.  Jean^ 
now  became  Ms  chief  station.  It  confronted  its  rival, 
Port  Royal,  across  the  intervening  Bay  of  Fundy. 

Now  began  a  bitter  feud  between  the  two  chiefs, 
each  claiming  lands  occupied  by  the  other.  The 
Court  interposed  to  settle  the  dispute,  but  in  its 
ignorance  of  Acadian  geography  its  definitions  were 

f^^^  so  obscure  that  the  question  was  more  embroiled  than 

S^  ;ever.3 

1  Besides  succeeding  to  the  authority  of  Razilly,  D'Aunay  had 
bought  of  his  heirs  their  land  claims  in  Acadia.  Arrets  du  Conseil, 
9  Mars,  1642. 

2  Concession  de  la  Compagnie  de  la  Nouvelle  France  a  Charles  de 
Saint-Etienne,  Sieur  de  la  Tour,  Lieutenant  General  de  I'Acadie,  du 
Fort  de  la  Tour,  dans  la  Riviere  de  St.  Jean,  du  15  Jan.,  1635,  in 
Memoires  des  Commissaires,  v.  113  (ed.  1756,  12mo). 

2  Louis  XIII.  a  d'Aunai/,  10  Fev.,  1638.  This  seems  to  be  the 
occasion  of  Charlevoix's  inexact  assertion  that  Acadia  was  divided 
into  three  governments,  under  D'Aunay,  La  Tour,  and  Nicolas 
Denys,  respectively.  The  title  of  Denys,  such  as  it  was,  had  no 
existonce  till  1654. 


1633-42.]  ENGLISH  INTERLOPERS.  15 

While  the  domestic  feud  of  the  rivals  was  gather- 
ing to  a  head,  foreign  heretics  had  fastened  their 
clutches  on  various  parts  of  the  Atlantic  coast  which 
France  and  the  Church  claimed  as  their  own.  English 
heretics  had  made  lodgment  in  Virginia,  and  Dutch 
heretics  at  the  mouth  of  the  Hudson;  while  other 
sectaries  of  the  most  malignant  type  had  kennelled 
among  the  sands  and  pine-trees  of  Plymouth;  and 
others  still,  slightly  different,  but  equally  venomous, 
had  ensconced  themselves  on  or  near  the  small  penin- 
sula of  Shawmut,  at  the  head  of  La  Grande  Baye,  or 
the  Bay  of  Massachusetts.  As  it  was  not  easy  to 
dislodge  them,  the  French  dissembled  for  the  present, 
yielded  to  the  logic  of  events,  and  bided  their  time. 
But  the  interlopers  soon  began  to  swarm  northward 
and  invade  the  soil  of  Aca,dia,  sacred  to  God  and  the 
King.  Small  parties  from  Plymouth  built  trading- 
houses  at  Machias  and  at  what  is  now  Castine,  on 
the  Penobscot.  As  they  were  competitors  in  trade, 
no  less  than  foes  of  God  and  King  Louis,  and  as 
they  were  too  few  to  resist,  both  La  Tour  and 
D'Aunay  resolved  to  expel  them;  and  in  1633  La 
Tour  attacked  the  Plymouth  trading-house  at  Machias, 
killed  two  of  the  five  men  he  found  there,  carried  off 
the  other  three,  and  seized  all  the  goods. ^  Two 
years  later  D'Aunay  attacked  the  Plymouth  trading- 
station  at  Penobscot,  the  Pentegoet  of  the  French, 
and  took  it  in  the  name  of  King  Louis.  That  he 
might  not  appear  in  the  part  of  a  pirate,  he  set  a 

^  Hubbard,  History  of  New  England,  163. 


16  LA  TOUR  AND   D'AUNAY.  [1638-42. 

price  on  the  goods  of  the  traders,  and  then,  having 
seized  them,  gave  in  return  his  promise  to  pay  at 
some  convenient  time  if  the  owners  would  come  to 
him  for  the   money. 

He  had  called  on  La  Tour  to  help  him  in  this  raid 
against  Penobscot;  but  La  Tour,  unwilling  to  recog- 
nize  his   right  to  command,   had  refused,   and  had 
,  hoped  that  D'Aunay,  becoming  disgusted  with  his 
*;y    Acadian  venture,  which  promised  neither  honor  nor 
^'    profit,  would  give  it  up,  go  back  to  France,  and  stay 
'there.     About  the  year  1638  D'Aunay  did  in  fact  go 
to  France,  but  not  to  stay ;  for  in  due  time  he  reap- 
peared, bringing  with  him  his  bride,  Jeanne  Motin, 
who  had  had  the  courage  to  share  his  fortunes,  and 
whom  he  now  installed  at  Port  Royal,  —  a  sure  sign, 
as  his  rival  thought,  that  he  meant  to  make  his  home 
there.     Disappointed  and  angry.   La  Tour  now  lost 
patience,    went   to    Port   Royal,    and    tried   to    stir 
D'Aunay's  soldiers  to  mutiny;  then  set  on  his  Indian 
friends    to    attack   a   boat    in    which    was    one    of 
D'Aunay's    soldiers    and   a   Capuchin    friar,  — the 
I    soldier  being  Idlled,  though  the  friar  escaped.^     This 
;}    I    was  the  beginning  of  a  quarrel  waged  partly  at  Port 
\\  ^  I    Royal  and  St.  Jean,  and  partly  before  the  admiralty 
court  of  Guienne  and  the  royal  council,  partly  with 
bullets    and    cannon-shot,    and   partly   with   edicts, 
decrees,  and  proch  verhaux.     As  D'Aunay  had  taken 
a  wife,  so  too  would  La  Tour;  and  he  charged  his 
agent   Desjardins   to  bring   him   one   from   France. 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay. 


1642.]  LA  TOUR   SURRENDERS.  17 

The  agent  acquitted  himself  of  his  delicate  mission, 
and  shipped  to  Acadia  one  Marie  Jacquelin,  — 
daughter  of  a  barber  of  Mans,  if  we  may  believe  the 
questionable  evidence  of  his  rival.  Be  this  as  it 
may,  Marie  Jacquelin  proved  a  prodigy  of  mettle  and 
energy,  espoused  her  husband's  cause  with  passionate 
vehemence,  and  backed  his  quarrel  like  the  intrepid 
Amazon  she  was.  She  joined  La  Tour  at  Fort  St. 
Jean,  and  proved  the  most  strenuous  of  allies. 

About  this  time,  D'Aunay  heard  that  the  English 
of  Plymouth  meant  to  try  to  recover  Penobscot  from 
his  hands.  On  this  he  sent  nine  soldiers  thither,\ 
with  provisions  and  munitions.  La  Tour  seized  them 
on  the  way,  carried  them  to  Fort  St.  Jean,  and, 
according  to  his  enemies,  treated  them  like   slaves. 

D'Aunay  heard  nothing  of  this  till  four  months 
after,  when,  being  told  of  it  by  Indians,  he  sailed  in 
person  to  Penobscot  with  two  small  vessels,  reinforced 
the  place,  and  was  on  his  way  back  to  Port  Royal 
when  La  Tour  met  him  with  two  armed  pinnaces.  A 
fight  took  place,  and  one  of  D'Aunay's  vessels  was 
dismasted.  He  fought  so  well,  however,  that  Cap- 
tain Jamin,  his  enemy's  chief  officer,  was  killed; 
and  the  rest,  including  La  Tour,  his  new  wife,  and 
his  agent  Desjardins,  were  forced  to  surrender,  and 
were  carried  prisoners  to  Port  Royal. 

At  the  request  of  the  Capuchin  friars  D'Aunay  set 
them  all  at  liberty,  after  compelling  La  Tour  to  sign 
a  promise  to  keep  the  peace  in  future.^     Both  parties 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisSe  par  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aunay. 

VOL.  I.  —  2 


J' 


18  LA  TOUR  AND  D'AUNAY.  [1642. 

now  laid  their  cases  before  the  French  courts,  and, 
whether  from  the  justice  of  his  cause  or  from  superior 
influence,  D'Aunay  prevailed.  La  Tour's  commis- 
sion was  revoked,  and  he  was  ordered  to  report  him- 
self in  France  to  receive  the  King's  commands. 
Trusting  to  his  remoteness  from  the  seat  of  power, 
and  knowing  that  the  King  was  often  ill  served  and 
worse  informed,  he  did  not  obey,  but  remained  in 
Acadia  exercising  his  authority  as  before.  D'Aunay's 
father,  from  his  house  in  Rue  St.  Germain,  Avatched 
over  his  son's  interests,  and  took  care  that  La  Tour's 
conduct  should  not  be  unknown  at  court.  A  decree 
was  thereupon  issued  directing  D'Aunay  to  seize  his 
rival's  forts  in  the  name  of  the  King,  and  place  them 
in  charge  of  trusty  persons.  The  order  was  precise; 
but  D'Aunay  had  not  at  the  time  force  enough  to 
execute  it,  and  the  frugal  King  sent  him  only  six 
soldiers.  Hence  he  could  only  show  the  royal  order 
to  La  Tour,  and  offer  him  a  passage  to  France  in  one 
of  his  vessels  if  he  had  the  discretion  to  obey.  La 
Tour  refused,  on  which  D'Aunay  returned  to  France 
to  report  his 'rival's  contumacy.  At  about  the  same 
time  La  Tour's  French  agent  sent  him  a  vessel  with 
succors.  The  King  ordered  it  to  be  seized;  but  the 
order  came  too  late,  for  the  vessel  had  already  sailed 
from  Rochelle  bound  to  Fort  St.  Jean. 

When  D'Aunay  reported  the  audacious  conduct  of 
his  enemy,  the  royal  council  ordered  that  the  offender 
should  be  brought  prisoner  to  France ;  ^  and  D'Aunay, 

i  Arret  du  Conseil,  21  Fev.,  1642. 


1643.]         LA  TOUR  ASKS   AID  OF   BOSTON.  19 

as  the  King's  lieutenant-general  in  Acadia,  was  again 
required  to  execute  the  decree.^  La  Tour  was  now 
in  the  position  of  a  rebel,  and  all  legality  was  on  the 
side  of  his  enemy,  who  represented  royalty  itself. 

D'Aunay  sailed  at  once  for  Acadia,  and  in  August, 
1642,  anchored  at  the  mouth  of  the  St.  John, 
before  La  Tour's  fort,  and  sent  three  gentlemen  in  a 
boat  to  read  to  its  owner  the  decree  of  the  council 
and  the  order  of  the  King.  La  Tour  snatched  the 
papers,  crushed  them  between  his  hands,  abused  the 
envoys  roundly,  put  them  and  their  four  sailors  into 
prison,  and  kept  them  there  above  a  year.^ 

His  position  was  now  desperate,  for  he  had  placed 
himself  in  open  revolt.  Alarmed  for  the  conse- 
quences, he  turned  for  help  to  the  heretics  of  Boston. 
True  Catholics  detested  them  as  foes  of  God  and 
man ;  but  La  Tour  was  neither  true  Catholic  nor  true 
Protestant,  and  would  join  hands  with  anybody  who 
could  serve  liis  turn.  Twice  before  he  had  made 
advances  to  the  Boston  malign  ants,  and  sent  to  them 
first  one  Rochet,  and  then  one  Lestang,  with  pro- 
posals of  trade  and  alliance.  The  envoys  were 
treated  with  courtesy,  but  could  get  no  promise  of 
active  aid.^ 

La  Tour's  agent,  Desjardins,  had  sent  him  from 
Rochelle  a  ship,  called  the  "St.  Clement,"  manned 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee. 

*  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee.  Moreau,  Histoire  de  I'Acadie,  169, 
170. 

"  Hubbard,  History  of  New  England,  chap,  liv,  Winthrop,  ii. 
42,  88. 


20  LA  TOUR  AND   D'AUNAY.  [1643. 

by  a  hundred  and  forty  Huguenots,  laden  with  stores 
and  munitions,  and  commanded  by  Captain  Mouron. 
In  due  time  La  Tour  at  his  Fort  St.  Jean  heard  that 
the  "St.  Clement"  lay  off  the  mouth  of  the  river, 
unable  to  get  in  because  D'Aunay  blockaded  the 
entrance  with  two  armed  ships  and  a  pinnace.  On 
this  he  resolved  to  appeal  in  person  to  the  heretics. 
He  ran  the  blockade  in  a  small  boat  under  cover  of 
night,  and,  accompanied  by  his  wife,  boarded  the 
"St.  Clement"  and  sailed  for  Boston. ^ 

^  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisee. 


CHAPTER  II. 

1643-1645. 

LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS. 

La  Tour  at  Boston  :  his  Meeting  with  Winthrop.  —  Boston 
IN  1043.  —  Training  Day.  —  An  Alarm.  —  La  Tour's  Bargain. 
—  Doubts  and  Disputes.  —  The  Allies  sail.  —  La  Tour  and 
Endicott. — D'Aunay's  Overture  to  the  Puritans. — Marie's 
Mission. 

On  tlie  twelfth  of  June,  1643,  the  people  of  the 
infant  town  of  Boston  saw  with  some  misgiving  a 
French  sliip  entering  their  harbor.  It  chanced  that 
the  wife  of  Captain  Edward  Gibbons,  with  her 
children,  was  on  her  way  in  a  boat  to  a  farm  belong- 
ing to  her  husband  on  an  island  in  the  harbor.  One 
of  La  Tour's  party,  who  had  before  made  a  visit  to 
Boston,  and  had  been  the  guest  of  Gibbons,  recog- 
nized his  former  hostess ;  and  he,  with  La  Tour  and 
a  few  sailors,  cast  off  from  the  ship  and  went  to 
speak  to  her  in  a  boat  that  was  towed  at  the  stern  of 
the  "St.  Clement."  Mrs.  Gibbons,  seeing  herself 
chased  by  a  crew  of  outlandish  foreigners,  took  refuge 
on  the  island  where  Fort  Winthrop  was  afterwards 
built,  which  was  then  known  as  the  "Governor's 
Garden,"   as   it   had   an   orchard,    a   vineyard,    and 


22  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.  [1643. 

"many  other  conveniences."^  The  islands  in  the 
harbor,  most  of  which  were  at  that  time  well  wooded, 
seem  to  have  been  favorite  places  of  cultivation,  as 
sheep  and  cattle  were  there  safe  from  those  pests  of 
the  mainland,  the  wolves.  La  Tour,  no  doubt  to  the 
dismay  of  Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her  children,  landed 
after  them,  and  was  presently  met  by  the  governor 
himself,  who,  with  his  wife,  two  sons,  and  a  daughter- 
in-law,  had  apparently  rowed  over  to  their  garden  for 
the  unwonted  recreation  of  an  afternoon's  outing.'^ 
La  Tour  made  himself  known  to  the  governor,  and, 
after  mutual  civilities,  told  him  that  a  ship  bringing 
supplies  from  France  had  been  stopped  by  his  enemy, 
D'Aunay,  and  that  he  had  come  to  ask  for  help  to 
raise  the  blockade  and  bring  her  to  his  fort. 
Winthrop  replied  that,  before  answering,  he  must 
consult  the  magistrates.  As  Mrs.  Gibbons  and  her 
children  were  anxious  to  get  home,  the  governor 
sent  them  to  town  in  his  own  boat,  promising  to 
follow  with  his  party  in  that  of  La  Tour,  who  had 
placed  it  at  his  disposal.  Meanwhile,  the  people  of 
Boston  had  heard  of  what  was  taking  place,  and  were 
in  some  anxiety,  since,  in  a  truly  British  distrust  of 
all  Frenchmen,  they  feared  lest  their  governor  might 
be  kidnapped  and  held  for  ransom.  Some  of  them 
accordingly  took  arms,  and  came  in  three  boats  to 
the  rescue.  In  fact,  remarks  Winthrop,  "  if  La  Tour 
had  been  ill-minded  towards   us,  he   had   such  an 

1  Wood,  Neio  England's  Prospect,  part  i.,  chap.  x. 

2  Winthrop,  ii.  127. 


La  Tour  ami  IVinthrop. 


1643.]  BOSTON  IN  1643.  23 

opportunity  as  we  hope  neither  he  nor  any  other  shall 
ever  have  the  like  again.  "^  The  castle,  or  fort, 
which  was  on  another  island  hard  by,  was  defenceless, 
its  feeble  garrison  having  been  lately  withdrawn,  and 
its  cannon  might  easily  have  been  turned  on  the  town. 

Boston,  now  in  its  thirteenth  year,  was  a  straggling 
village,  with  houses  principally  of  boards  or  logs, 
gathered  about  a  plain  wooden  meeting-house  which 
formed  the  heart  or  vital  organ  of  the  place.  The 
rough  peninsula  on  which  the  infant  settlement  stood 
was  almost  void  of  trees,  and  was  crowned  by  a  hill 
split  into  three  summits,  —  whence  the  name  of 
Tremont,  or  Trimount,  still  retained  by  a  street  of 
the  present  city.  Beyond  the  narrow  neck  of  the 
peninsula  were  several  smaller  villages  with  outlying 
farms;  but  the  mainland  was  for  the  most  part  a 
primeval  forest,  possessed  by  its  original  owners,  — 
wolves,  bears,  and  rattlesnakes.  These  last  unde- 
sirable neighbors  made  their  favorite  haunt  on  a  high 
rocky  hill,  called  Rattlesnake  Hill,  not  far  inland, 
where,  down  to  the  present  generation,  they  were 
often  seen,  and  where  good  specimens  may  occasion- 
ally be  found  to  this  day.^ 

Far  worse  than  wolves  or  rattlesnakes  were  the 
Pequot  Indians,  —  a  warlike  race  who   had  boasted 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  127. 

■^  Blue  Hill  in  Milton.  "  Up  into  the  country  is  a  high  hill  which 
is  called  rattlesnake  hill,  where  there  is  great  store  of  these 
poysonous  creatures."  (Wood,  New  England's  Prospect.)  "They 
[the  wolves]  be  the  greatest  inconveniency  the  country  hath." 
{lUd.) 


.^> 


24  LA  TOUR  AND  THE  PURITANS.  [1643. 

that  they  would  wipe  the  whites  from  the  face  of  the 
earth,  but  who,  by  hard  marching  and  fighting,  had 
lately  been  brought  to  reason. 

Worse  than  wolves,  rattlesnakes,  and  Indians 
together  were  the  theological  quarrels  that  threatened 
to  kill  the  colony  in  its  infancy.  Children  are  taught 
that  the  Puritans  came  to  New  England  in  search  of 
religious  liberty.  The  liberty  they  sought  was  for 
themselves  alone.  It  was  the  liberty  to  worship  in 
their  own  way,  and  to  prevent  all  others  from  doing 
the  like.  They  imagined  that  they  held  a  monopoly 
of  religious  truth,  and  were  bound  in  conscience  to 
defend  it  against  all  comers.  Their  mission  was  to 
build  up  a  western  Canaan,  ruled  by  the  law  of  God; 
to  keep  it  pure  from  error,  and,  if  need  were,  purge 
it  of  heresy  by  persecution,  —  to  which  ends  they  set 
up  one  of  the  most  detestable  theocracies  on  record. 
Church  and  State  were  joined  in  one.  Church- 
members  alone  had  the  right  to  vote.  There  was 
no  choice  but  to  remain  politically  a  cipher,  or 
embrace,  or  pretend  to  embrace,  the  extremest 
dogmas  of  Calvin.  Never  was  such  a  premium 
offered  to  cant  and  hypocrisy ;  yet  in  the  early  days 
hypocrisy  was  rare,  so  intense  and  pervading  was 
the  faith  of  the  founders  of  New  England. 

It  was  in  the  churches  themselves,  the  appointed 
sentinels  and  defenders  of  orthodoxy,  that  heresy 
lifted  its  head  and  threatened  the  State  with  disrup- 
tion. Where  minds  different  in  complexion  and 
character  were  continually  busied  with  subtle  ques- 


1643.]  PURITAN  TROUBLES.  25 

tions  of  theology,  unity  of  opinion  could  not  be  long 
maintained ;  and  innovation  found  a  champion  in  one 
Mrs.  Hutchinson,  a  woman  of  great  controversial 
ability  and  inexhaustible  fluency  of  tongue.  Persons 
of  a  mystical  turn  of  mind,  or  a  natural  inclination 
to  contrariety,  were  drawn  to  her  preachings;  and 
the  church  of  Boston,  with  three  or  four  exceptions, 
went  over  to  her  in  a  body.  "  Sanctification,"  "  justi- 
fication," "revelations,"  the  "covenant  of  grace," 
and  the  "covenant  of  works,"  mixed  in  furious  battle 
with  all  the  subtleties,  sophistries,  and  venom  of  theo- 
logical war ;  while  the  ghastly  spectre  of  Antinomian- 
ism  hovered  over  the  fray,  carrying  terror  to  the  souls 
of  the  faithful.  The  embers  of  the  strife  still  burned 
hot  when  La  Tour  appeared  to  bring  another  firebrand. 
As  a  "papist"  or  " idolater, "  though  a  mild  one, 
he  was  sorely  prejudiced  in  Puritan  eyes,  while  his 
plundering  of  the  Plymouth  trading-house  some 
years  before,  and  killing  two  of  its  five  tenants,  did 
not  tend  to  produce  impressions  in  his  favor;  but  it 
being  explained  that  all  five  were  drunk,  and  had 
begun  the  fray  by  firing  on  the  French,  the  ire 
against  him  cooled  a  little.  Landing  with  Winthrop, 
he  was  received  under  the  hospitable  roof  of  Captain 
Gibbons,  whose  wife  had  recovered  from  her  fright 
at  his  approach.  He  went  to  church  on  Sunday,  and 
the  gravity  of  his  demeanor  gave  great  satisfaction, 
—  a  solemn  carriage  being  of  itself  a  virtue  in  Puritan 
eyes.  Hence  he  was  well  treated,  and  his  men  were 
permitted  to  come  ashore  daily  in  small  numbers. 


26  LA  TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.  [1643. 

The  stated  traiuing-day  of  the  Boston  militia  fell 
in  the  next  week,  and  La  Tour  asked  leave  to  exer- 
cise his  soldiers  with  the  rest.  This  was  granted ; 
and,  escorted  by  the  Boston  trained  band,  about 
forty  of  them  marched  to  the  muster-field,  which 
wa«  probably  the  Common,  —  a  large  tract  of  pasture- 
land  in  wliich  was  a  marshy  pool,  the  former  home 
of  a  colony  of  frogs,  perhaps  not  quite  exterminated 
by  the  sticks  and  stones  of  Puritan  boys.  This  pool, 
cleaned,  paved,  and  curbed  with  granite,  preserves  to 
tliis  day  the  memory  of  its  ancient  inhabitants,  and 
is  still  the  Frog  Pond,  though  bereft  of  frogs. 

The  Boston  trained  band,  in  steel  caps  and  buff 
coats,  went  through  its  exercise;  and  the  visitors, 
we  are  told,  expressed  high  approval.  When  the 
di'ill  was  finished,  the  Boston  officers  invited  La 
Tour's  officers  to  dine,  while  his  rank  and  file  were 
entertained  in  like  manner  by  the  Puritan  soldiers. 
There  were  more  exercises  in  the  afternoon,  and  this 
time  it  was  the  turn  of  the  French,  who,  says 
Winthrop,  "were  very  expert  in  all  their  postures 
and  motions."  A  certain  "judicious  minister,"  in 
dread  of  popish  conspiracies,  was  troubled  in  spirit 
at  this  martial  display,  and  prophesied  that  "  store  of 
blood  would  be  spilled  in  Boston,"  —  a  prediction 
that  was  not  fulfilled,  although  an  incident  took 
place  which  startled  some  of  the  spectators.  The 
Frenchmen  suddenly  made  a  sham  charge,  sword  in 
hand,  wliich  the  women  took  for  a  real  one.  The 
alarm   was   soon   over;    and   as    this    demonstration 


1643.]  LA  TOUR'S  REQUEST.  27 

ended  the  performance,  La  Tour  asked  leave  of  the 
governor  to  withdraw  his  men  to  their  ship.  The 
leave  being  granted,  they  fired  a  salute  and  marched 
to  the  wharf  where  their  boat  lay,  escorted,  as  before, 
by  the  Boston  trained  band.  During  the  whole  of 
La  Tour's  visit  he  and  Winthrop  went  amicably  to 
church  together  every  Sunday,  — the  governor  being 
attended,  on  these  and  all  other  occasions  while  the 
strangers  were  in  town,  by  a  guard  of  honor  of 
musketeers  and  halberd  men.  La  Tour  and  his  chief 
officers  had  their  lodging  and  meals  in  the  houses  of 
the  principal  townsmen,  and  all  seemed  harmony  and 
good-will. 

La  Tour,  meanwhile,  had  laid  his  request  before 
the  magistrates,  and  produced  among  other  papers 
the  commission  to  Mouron,  captain  of  his  ship,  dated 
in  the  last  April,  and  signed  and  sealed  by  the  Vice- 
Admiral  of  France,  authorizing  Mouron  to  bring 
supplies  to  La  Tour,  whom  the  paper  styled  Lieuten- 
ant-General  for  the  King  in  Acadia;  La  Tour  also 
showed  a  letter,  genuine  or  forged,  from  the  agent  of 
the  Company  of  New  France,  addressed  to  him  as 
lieutenant-general,  and  warning  him  to  beware  of 
D'Aunay:  from  all  which  the  Boston  magistrates 
inferred  that  their  petitioner  Avas  on  good  terms  with 
the   French   government,  ^  notwithstanding   a   letter 

1  Count  Jules  de  Menou,  in  his  remarkable  manuscript  book  now 
before  me,  expresses  his  belief  that  the  commission  of  the  Vice- 
Admiral  was  genuine,  but  that  the  letter  of  the  agent  of  the  Com- 
pany was  a  fabrication. 


28  LA  TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.         [1643. 

sent  them  by  D'Aunay  the  year  before,  assuring 
them  that  La  Tour  was  a  proclaimed  rebel,  which  in 
fact  he  was.  Throughout  this  affair  one  is  perplexed 
by  the  French  official  papers,  whose  entanglements 
and  contradictions  in  regard  to  the  Acadian  rivals  are 
past  um-avelling. 

La  Tour  asked  only  for  such  help  as  would  enable 
him  to  bring  his  own  ship  to  his  own  fort;  and,  as 
his  papers  seemed  to  prove  that  he  was  a  recognized 
officer  of  his  King,  Winthrop  and  the  magistrates 
thought  that  they  might  permit  him  to  hire  such 
ships  and  men  as  were  disposed  to  join  him. 

La  Tour  had  tried  to  pass  himself  as  a  Protestant; 
but  his  professions  were  distrusted,  notwithstanding 
the  patience  with  which  he  had  listened  to  the  long- 
winded  sermons  of  the  Reverend  John  Cotton.  As 
to  his  wife,  however,  there  appears  to  have  been  but 
one  opinion.  She  was  approved  as  a  sound  Protestant 
"of  excellent  virtues;"  and  her  denunciations  of 
D'Aunay  no  doubt  fortified  the  prejudice  which  was 
already  strong  against  him  for  his  seizure  of  the 
Plymouth  trading-house  at  Penobscot,  and  for  his 
aggressive  and  masterful  character,  which  made  him 
an  inconvenient  neighbor. 

With  the  permission  of  the  governor  and  the 
approval  of  most  of  the  magistrates,  La  Tour  now 
made  a  bargain  with  his  host,  Captain  Gibbons,  and 
a  merchant  named  Thomas  Hawkins.  They  agreed 
to  furnish  him  with  four  vessels;  to  arm  each  of 
these  with  from  four  to  fourteen  small  cannon,  and 


1643.]  DISPUTES.  29 

man  them  with  a  certain  number  of  sailors,  La  Tour 
himself  completing  the  crews  with  Englishmen  hired, 
at  his  own  charge.  Hawkins  was  to  command  the 
whole.  The  four  vessels  were  to  escort  La  Tour  and 
his  ship,  the  "St.  Clement,"  to  the  mouth  of  the  St. 
John,  in  spite  of  D'Aunay  and  all  other  opponents. 
The  agreement  ran  for  two  months;  and  La  Tour 
was  to  pay  £250  sterling  a  month  for  the  use  of  the 
four  ships,  and  mortgage  to  Gibbons  and  Hawkins 
his  fort  and  all  his  Acadian  property  as  security. 
Winthrop  would  give  no  commissions  to  Hawkins  or 
any  others  engaged  in  the  expedition,  and  they  were 
all  forbidden  to  fight  except  in  self-defence ;  but  the 
agreement  contained  the  significant  clause  that  all 
plunder  was  to  be  equally  divided  according  to  rule 
in  such  enterprises.  Hence  it  seems  clear  that  the 
contractors  had  an  eye  to  booty;  yet  no  means  were 
used  to  hold  them  to  their  good  behavior. 

Now  rose  a  brisk  dispute,  and  the  conduct  of 
Winthrop  was  sharply  criticised.  Letters  poured  in 
upon  him  concerning  "great  dangers,"  "sin  upon  the 
conscience,"  and  the  like.  He  himself  was  clearly  in 
doubt  as  to  the  course  he  was  taking,  and  he  soon 
called  another  meeting  of  magistrates,  in  which  the 
inevitable  clergy  were  invited  to  join;  and  they  all 
fell  to  discussing  the  matter  anew.  As  every  man  of 
them  had  studied  the  Bible  daily  from  childhood  up, 
texts  were  the  chief  weapons  of  the  debate.  Doubts 
were  advanced  as  to  whether  Christians  could  law- 
fully help   idolaters,   and   Jehoshaphat,    Ahab,    and 


30  LA  TOUR   AND  THE  PURITANS.         [1643. 

Josias  were  brought  forward  as  cases  in  point.  Then 
Solomon  was  cited  to  the  effect  that  "  he  that  med- 
dleth  mth  the  strife  that  belongs  not  to  him  takes  a 
dog  by  the  ear;  "  to  which  it  was  answered  that  the 
quarrel  did  belong  to  us,  seeing  that  Providence  now 
offered  us  the  means  to  weaken  our  enemy,  D'Aunay, 
without  much  expense  or  trouble  to  ourselves. 
Besides,  we  ought  to  help  a  neighbor  in  distress, 
seeing  that  Joshua  helped  the  Gibeonites,  and 
Jehoshaphat  helped  Jehoram  against  Moab  with  the 
approval  of  Elisha.  The  opposing  party  argued  that 
"by  aiding  papists  we  advance  and  strengthen 
popery;"  to  which  it  was  replied  that  the  opposite 
effect  might  follow,  since  the  grateful  papist,  touched 
by  our  charity,  might  be  won  to  the  true  faith  and 
turned  from  his  idols. 

Then  the  debate  continued  on  the  more  worldly 
grounds  of  expediency  and  statecraft,  and  at  last 
Winthrop's  action  was  approved  by  the  majority. 
Still,  there  were  many  doubters,  and  the  governor 
was  severely  blamed.  John  Endicott  wrote  to  him 
that  La  Tour  was  not  to  be  trusted,  and  that  he 
and  D'Aunay  had  better  be  left  to  fight  it  out 
between  them,  since  if  we  help  the  former  to  put 
down  his  enemy  he  will  be  a  bad  neighbor  to  us. 

Presently  came  a  joint  letter  from  several  chief 
men  of  the  colony, —  Saltonstall,  Bradstreet,  Nathaniel 
Ward,  John  Norton,  and  others,  —  saying  in  sub- 
stance: We  fear  international  law  has  been  ill 
observed;  the  merits  of  the  case  are  not  clear;  we 


1643.]  WINTHROP  BLAMED.  31 

are  not  called  upon  in  charity  to  help  La  Tour  (see 
2  Chronicles  xix.  2,  and  Proverbs  xxvi.  17);  this 
quarrel  is  for  England  and  France,  and  not  for  us ;  if 
D'Aunay  is  not  completely  put  down,  we  shall  have 
endless  trouble;  and  "he  that  loses  his  life  in  an 
unnecessary  quarrel  dies  the  devil's  martyr." 

This  letter,  known  as  the  "Ipswich  letter,"  touched 
Winthrop  to  the  quick.  He  thought  that  it  trenched 
on  his  official  dignity,  and  the  asperity^  of  his  answer 
betrays  his  sensitiveness.  He  calls  the  remonstrance 
"an  act  of  an  exorbitant  nature,"  and  says  that  it 
"blows  a  trumpet  to  division  and  dissension."  "If 
my  neighbor  is  in  trouble,"  he  goes  on  to  say,  "I 
must  help  him."  He  maintains  that  "there  is  great 
difference  between  giving  permission  to  hire  to  guard 
or  transport,  and  giving  commission  to  fight,"  and  he 
adds  the  usual  Bible  text,  "  The  fear  of  man  bringeth 
a  snare;  but  whoso  putteth  his  trust  in  the  Lord 
shall  be  safe." ^ 

In  spite  of  Winthrop's  reply,  the  Ipswich  letter 
had  great  effect;  and  he  and  the  Boston  magistrates 
were  much  blamed,  especially  in  the  country  towns. 
The  governor  was  too  candid  not  to  admit  that  he 
had  been  in  fault,  though  he  limits  his  self-accusation 
to  three  points :  first,  that  he  had  given  La  Tour  an 
answer  too  hastily ;  next,  that  he  had  not  sufficiently 


1  Winthrop's  Answer  to  the  Ipswich  Letter  about  La  Tour  (no  date), 
in  Hutchinson  Papers,  122.  Bradstreet  writes  to  liim  on  the  21st  of 
June, "  Our  ayding  of  Latour  was  very  grievous  to  many  hereabouts, 
the  design  being  feared  to  be  unwarrantable  by  dyvers." 


32  LA  TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.  [1643. 

consulted  the  elders  or  ministers ;  and  lastly,  that  he 
had  not  opened  the  discussion  with  prayer. 

The  upshot  was  that  La  Tour  and  his  allies  sailed 
on  the  fourteenth  of  July.  D'Aunay's  three  vessels 
fled  before  them  to  Port  Royal.  La  Tour  tried  to  per- 
suade liis  Puritan  friends  to  join  him  in  an  attack ; 
but  Hawkins,  the  English  commander,  would  give 
no  order  to  that  effect,  on  which  about  thirty  of 
the  Boston  men  volunteered  for  the  adventure. 
D'Aunay's  followers  had  ensconced  themselves  in  a 
fortified  mill,  whence  they  were  driven  with  some 
loss.  After  burning  the  mill  and  robbing  a  pin- 
nace loaded  with  furs,  the  Puritans  returned  home, 
ha\'ing  broken  their  orders  and  compromised  their 
colony. 

In  the  next  summer.  La  Tour,  expecting  a  serious 
attack  from  D'Aunay,  —  who  had  lately  been  to 
France,  and  was  said  to  be  on  his  way  back  with 
large  reinforcements,  —  turned  again  to  Massachusetts 
for  help.  The  governor  this  time  was  John  Endicott, 
of  Salem.  To  Salem  the  suppliant  repaired;  and  as 
Endicott  spoke  French,  the  conference  was  easy. 
The  rugged  bigot  had  before  expressed  his  disap- 
proval of  "having  anything  to  do  with  these  idola- 
trous French;"  but,  according  to  Hubbard,  he  was 
so  moved  with  compassion  at  the  woful  tale  of  his 
visitor  that  he  called  a  meeting  of  magistrates  and 
ministers  to  consider  if  anything  could  be  done  for 
him.  The  magistrates  had  by  this  time  learned 
caution,  and  the  meeting  would  do  nothing  but  write 


1643.]  D'AUNAY'S   ARRIVAL.  33 

a  letter  to  D'Aunay,  demanding  satisfaction  for  his 
seizure  of  Penobscot  and  other  aggressions,  and 
declaring  that  the  men  who  escorted  La  Tour  to  his 
fort  in  the  last  summer  had  no  commission  from 
Massachusetts,  yet  that  if  they  had  wronged  him  he 
should  have  justice,  though  if  he  seized  any  New 
England  trading  vessels  they  would  hold  him  an- 
swerable. In  short,  La  Tour's  petition  was  not 
granted. 

D'Aunay,  when  in  France,  had  pursued  his  litiga- 
tion against  his  rival,  and  the  royal  council  had 
ordered  that  the  contumacious  La  Tour  should  be 
seized,  his  goods  confiscated,  and  he  himself  brought 
home  a  prisoner;  which  decree  D'Aunay  was  empow- 
ered to  execute,  if  he  could.  He  had  returned  to 
Acadia  the  accredited  agent  of  the  royal  will.  It 
was  reported  at  Boston  that  a  Biscayan  pirate  had 
sunk  his  ship  on  the  way ;  but  the  wish  was  father  to 
the  thought,  and  the  report  proved  false.  D'Aunay 
arrived  safely,  and  was  justly  incensed  at  the  support 
given  by  the  Purittxns  in  the  last  year  to  his  enemy. 
But  he  too  had  strong  reasons  for  wishing  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  his  heretic  neighbors.  King  Louis, 
moreover,  had  charged  him  not  to  offend  them,  since, 
when  they  helped  La  Tour,  they  had  done  so  in  the 
belief  that  he  was  commissioned  as  lieutenant-general 
for  the  King,  and  therefore  they  should  be  held 
blameless. 

Hence  D'Aunay  made  overtures  of  peace  and 
friendship  to  the  Boston  Puritans.     Early  in  October, 

VOL.  1.  —  ,3 


34  LA  TOUR   AND  THE   PURITANS.  [1644. 

1644,  they  were  visited  by  one  Monsieur  Marie, 
"supposed,"  says  the  chronicle,  "to  be  a  friar,  but 
habited  like  a  gentleman."  He  was  probably  one  of 
the  Capuchins  who  formed  an  important  part  of 
D'Aunay's  establishment  at  Port  Royal.  The  gov- 
ernor and  magistrates  received  him  with  due  consid- 
eration; and  along  with  credentials  from  D'Aunay 
he  showed  them  papers  under  the  great  seal  of 
France,  wherein  the  decree  of  the  royal  council  was 
set  forth  in  full.  La  Tour  condemned  as  a  rebel  and 
traitor,  and  orders  given  to  arrest  both  him  and  his 
wife.  Henceforth  there  was  no  room  to  doubt  which 
of  the  rival  cliiefs  had  the  King  and  the  law  on  his 
side.  The  envoy,  while  complaining  of  the  aid 
given  to  La  Tour,  offered  terms  of  peace  to  the  gov- 
ernor and  magistrates,  —  who  replied  to  his  com- 
plaints with  their  usual  subterfuge,  that  they  had 
given  no  commission  to  those  who  had  aided  La 
Tour,  declaring  at  the  same  time  that  they  could 
make  no  treaty  without  the  concurrence  of  the  com- 
missioners of  the  United  Colonies.  They  then  desired 
Marie  to  set  down  his  proposals  in  writing ;  on  which 
he  went  to  the  house  of  one  Mr.  Fowle,  where  he 
lodged,  and  drew  up  in  French  his  plan  for  a  treaty, 
adding  the  proposal  that  the  Bostonians  should  join 
D'Aunay  against  La  Tour.  Then  he  came  back  to 
the  place  of  meeting  and  discussed  the  subject  for 
half  a  day,  —  sometimes  in  Latin  with  the  magis- 
trates, and  sometimes  in  French  mth  the  governor, 
that  old  soldier  being  probably  ill  versed  in  the  classic 


16M.]  MARIE'S  MISSION.  35 

tongues.  In  vain  they  all  urged  that  D'Aunay 
should  come  to  terms  with  La  Tour.  Marie  replied, 
that  if  La  Tour  would  give  himself  up  his  life  would 
be  spared,  but  that  if  he  were  caught  he  would  lose 
his  head  as  a  traitor;  adding  that  his  wife  was  worse 
than  he,  being  the  mainspring  of  his  rebellion. 
Endicott  and  the  magistrates  refused  active  alliance ; 
but  the  talk  ended  in  a  provisional  treaty  of  peace, 
duly  drawn  up  in  Latin,  Marie  keeping  one  copy  and 
the  governor  the  other.  The  agreement  needed  rati- 
fication by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
on  one  part,  and  by  D'Aunay  on  the  other.  What  ^ 
is  most  curious  in  the  affair  is  the  attitude  of  Massa-\^  '^ 
chusetts,  which  from  first  to  last  figures  as  an  inde-  "" 
pendent  State,  with  no  reference  to  the  King  under 
whose  charter  it  was  building  up  its  theocratic 
republic,  and  consulting  none  but  the  infant  confed- 
eracy of  the  New  England  colonies,  of  which  it  was 
itself  the  head.  As  the  commissioners  of  the  confed- 
eracy were  not  then  in  session,  Endicott  and  the 
magistrates  took  the  matter  provisionally  into  their 
own  hands. 

Marie  had  made  good  despatch,  for  he  reached 
Boston  on  a  Friday  and  left  it  on  the  next  Tuesday, 
having  finished  his  business  in  about  three  days,  or 
rather  two,  as  one  of  the  three  was  "the  Sabbath." 
He  expressed  surprise  and  gratification  at  the  atten- 
tion and  courtesy  with  which  he  had  been  treated. 
His  hosts  supplied  him  with  horses,  and  some  of 
them  accompanied  him  to  Salem,  where  he  had  left 


36  LA  TOUR  AND   THE  PURITANS.  [1644. 

his  vessel,  and  whence  he  sailed  for  Port  Royal,  well 
pleased. 

Just  before  he  came  to  Boston,  that  town  had 
received  a  visit  from  Madame  de  la  Tour,  who,  soon 
after  her  husband's  successful  negotiation  with 
Winthrop  in  the  past  year,  had  sailed  for  France  in 
the  ship  "  St.  Clement."  She  had  labored  strenuously 
in  La  Tour's  cause;  but  the  influence  of  D'Aunay's 
partisans  was  far  too  strong,  and,  being  charged  with 
complicity  in  her  husband's  misconduct,  she  was 
forbidden  to  leave  France  on  pain  of  death.  She  set 
the  royal  command  at  naught,  escaped  to  England, 
took  passage  in  a  ship  bound  for  America,  and  after 
long  delay  landed  at  Boston.  The  English  ship- 
master had  bargained  to  carry  her  to  her  husband  at 
Fort  St.  Jean ;  but  he  broke  his  bond,  and  was  sen- 
tenced by  the  Massachusetts  courts  to  pay  her  £2,000 
as  damages.  She  was  permitted  to  hire  three  armed 
vessels  then  lying  in  the  harbor,  to  convey  her  to 
Fort  St.  Jean,  where  she  arrived  safely  and  rejoined 
La  Tour. 

Meanwhile,  D'Aunay  was  hovering  off  the  coast, 
armed  with  the  final  and  conclusive  decree  of  the 
royal  council,  which  placed  both  husband  and  wife 
under  the  ban,  and  enjoined  him  to  execute  its  sen- 
tence. But  a  resort  to  force  wsis  costly  and  of  doubt- 
ful result,  and  D'Aunay  resolved  again  to  try  the 
effect  of  persuasion.  Approaching  the  mouth  of  the 
St.  John,  he  sent  to  the  fort  two  boats,  commanded 
bv  his  lieutenant,  who  carried  letters  from  his  chief, 


1645.]  AN  ENRAGED  AMAZON.  37 

promising  to  La  Tour's  men  pardon  for  their  past 
conduct  and  payment  of  all  wages  due  them  if  they 
would  return  to  their  duty.  An  adherent  of  D'Aunay 
declares  that  they  received  these  advances  with 
insults  and  curses.  It  was  a  little  before  this  time 
that  Madame  de  la  Tour  arrived  from  Boston.  The 
same  writer  says  that  she  fell  into  a  transport  of  fury, 
"behaved  like  one  possessed  with  a  devil,"  and 
heaped  contemj^t  on  the  Catholic  faith  in  the  presence 
of  her  husband,  who  approved  everj-thing  she  did; 
and  he  further  affirms  tliat  she  so  berated  and  reviled 
the  R^collet  friars  in  the  fort  that  they  refused  to 
stay,  and  set  out  for  Port  Royal  in  the  depth  of 
winter,  taking  with  them  eight  soldiers  of  the  fort 
who  were  too  good  Catholics  to  remain  in  such  a  nest 
of  heresy  and  rebellion.  They  were  permitted  to  go, 
and  were  provided  with  an  old  pinnace  and  two 
barrels  of  Indian  corn,  with  which,  unfortunately  for 
La  Tour,  they  safely  reached  their  destination. 

On  her  arrival  from  Boston,  Madame  de  la  Tour 
had  given  her  husband  a  piece  of  politic  advice.  Her 
enemies  say  that  she  had  some  time  before  renounced 
her  faith  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  Puritans ;  but  there 
is  reason  to  believe  that  she  had  been  a  Huguenot 
from  the  first.  She  now  advised  La  Tour  to  go  to 
Boston,  declare  himself  a  Protestant,  ask  for  a  min- 
ister to  preach  to  his  men,  and  promise  that  if  the 
Bostonians  would  help  him  to  master  D'Aunay  and 
conquer  Acadia,  he  would  share  the  conquest  with 
them.     La  Tour  admired  the  sagacious  counsels  of 


17401)0 


38  LA   TOUR  AND  THE   PURITANS.  [1645. 

his  wife,  and  sailed  for  Boston  to  put  them  in  prac- 
tice just  before  the  friars  and  the  eight  deserters 
sailed  for  Port  Royal,  thus  leaving  their  departure 
unopposed. 

At  Port  Royal  both  friars  and  deserters  found  a 
warm  welcome.  D'Aunay  paid  the  eight  soldiers 
their  long  arrears  of  wages,  and  lodged  the  friars  in 
the  seminary  with  his  Capuchins.  Then  he  ques- 
tioned them,  and  was  well  rewarded.  They  told  him 
that  La  Tour  had  gone  to  Boston,  leaving  his  wife 
with  only  forty-five  men  to  defend  the  fort.  Here 
was  a  golden  opportunity.  D'Aunay  called  his 
officers  to  council.  All  were  of  one  mind.  He  mus- 
tered every  man  about  Port  Royal  and  embarked 
them  in  the  armed  ship  of  three  hundred  tons  that 
had  brought  him  from  France;  he  then  crossed  the 
Bay  of  Fundy  with  all  his  force,  anchored  in  a  small 
harbor  a  league  from  Fort  St.  Jean,  and  sent  the 
R^collet  Pere  Andr^  to  try  to  seduce  more  of  La 
Tour's  men,  —  an  attempt  which  proved  a  failure. 
D'Aunay  lay  two  months  at  his  anchorage,  during 
which  time  another  ship  and  a  pinnace  joined  him 
from  Port  Royal.  Then  he  resolved  to  make  an 
attack.  Meanwhile,  La  Tour  had  persuaded  a 
Boston  merchant  to  send  one  Grafton  to  Fort  St. 
Jean  in  a  small  vessel  loaded  with  provisions,  and 
bringing  also  a  letter  to  Madame  de  la  Tour  contain- 
ing a  promise  from  her  husband  that  he  would  join 
her  in  a  month.  When  the  Boston  vessel  appeared 
at  the  mouth  of  the  St.   John,  D'Aunay  seized  it, 


1645.]  FORT   ST.  JEAN  ATTACKED.  39 

placed  Grafton  and  the  few  men  with  him  on  an 
island,  and  finally  supplied  them  with  a  leaky  sail- 
boat to  make  their  way  home  as  they  best  could. 

D'Aunay  now  landed  two  cannon  to  batter  Fort 
St.  Jean  on  the  land  side ;  and  on  the  seventeenth  of 
April,  having  brought  his  largest  ship  within  pistol- 
shot  of  the  water  rampart,  he  summoned  the  garrison 
to  surrender.!  They  answered  with  a  volley  of  can- 
non-shot, then  hung  out  a  red  flag,  and,  according 
to  D'Aunay's  reporter,  shouted  "a  thousand  insults 
and  blasphemies  " !  ^  Towards  evening  a  breach  was 
made  in  the  wall,  and  D'Aunay  ordered  a  general 
assault.  Animated  by  their  intrepid  mistress,  the 
defenders  fought  with  desperation,  and  killed  or 
wounded  many  of  the  assailants,  not  without  severe 
loss  on  their  own  side.     Numbers  prevailed  at  last; 

1  The  site  of  Fort  St.  Jean,  or  Fort  La  Tour,  has  been  matter  of 
question.  At  Carleton,  opposite  the  present  city  of  St.  John,  are 
the  remains  of  an  earthen  fort,  by  some  supposed  to  be  that  of  La 
Tour,  but  which  is  no  doubt  of  later  date,  as  the  place  was  occupied 
by  a  succession  of  forts  down  to  the  Seven  Years'  War.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  has  been  assumed  that  Fort  La  Tour  was  at  Jemsec, 
whicli  is  about  seventy  miles  up  the  river.  Now,  in  the  second 
mortgage  deed  of  Fort  La  Tour  to  Major  Gibbons,  May  10,  1645, 
the  fort  is  described  as  "  sitiie  pres  de  I'embouchure  de  la  riviere  de  St. 
Jean."  Moreover,  there  is  a  cataract  just  above  the  mouth  of  the 
river,  which,  though  submerged  at  high  tide,  cannot  be  passed  by 
heavy  ships  at  any  time ;  and  as  D'Aunay  brought  his  largest  ship 
of  war  to  within  pistol-shot  of  the  fort,  it  must  have  been  below  the 
cataract.  Mr.  W.  F.  Ganong,  after  careful  examination,  is  con- 
vinced that  Fort  La  Tour  was  at  Portland  Point,  on  the  east  side  of 
the  St.  John,  at  its  mouth.  See  his  paper  on  the  subject  in  Transac- 
tions of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada,  1891. 

-  Proces  Verbal  d' Andre  Certain,  in  Appendix  A. 


40  LA  TOUR  AND   THE   PURITANS.  [1645. 

all  resistance  was  overcome;  the  survivors  of  the 
garrison  were  made  prisoners,  and  the  fort  wa«  pil- 
laged. Madame  de  la  Tour,  her  maid,  and  another 
woman,  who  were  all  of  their  sex  in  the  place,  were 
among  the  captives,  also  Madame  de  la  Tour's  son, 
a  mere  child.  D'Aunay  pardoned  some  of  his  pris- 
oners, but  hanged  the  greater  part,  "to  serve  as  an 
example  to  posterity,"  says  his  reporter.  Nicolas 
Denys  declares  that  he  compelled  Madame  de  la 
Tour  to  witness  the  execution  with  a  halter  about  her 
neck;  but  the  more  trustworthy  accounts  say  nothing 
of  this  alleged  outrage.  On  the  next  day,  the  eigh- 
teenth of  April,  the  bodies  of  the  dead  were  decently 
buried,  an  inventory  was  made  of  the  contents  of  the 
fort,  and  D'Aunay  set  his  men  to  repair  it  for  his 
own  use.  These  labors  occupied  three  weeks  or  more, 
during  a  part  of  which  Madame  de  la  Tour  was  left 
at  liberty,  till,  being  detected  in  an  attempt  to  corre- 
spond with  her  husband  by  means  of  an  Indian,  she 
was  put  into  confinement;  on  which,  according  to 
D'Aunay's  reporter,  "she  fell  ill  with  spite  and 
rage,"  and  died  within  three  weeks, — after,  as  he 
tells  us,  renouncing  her  heresy  in  the  chapel  of  the 
fort. 


CHAPTER  III. 

1645-1710. 

THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED. 

D'Aunat's  Envoys  to  the  Puritans  :  theik  Reception  at 
Boston.  —  Winthrop  and  his  "  Papist  "  Guests.  —  Recon- 
ciliation. —  Treaty.  —  Behavior  of  La  Tour.  —  Royal 
Favors  to  D'Aunay  :  his  Hopes  ;  his  Death  ;  his  Character. 
—  Conduct  of  the  Court  towards  him.  —  Intrigues  of  La 
Tour. —Madame  D'Aunay.  —  La  Tour  marries  her.  —  Chil- 
dren of  D'Aunay.  —  Descendants  of  La  Tour. 

Having  triumphed  over  his  rival,  D'Aunay  was 
left  free  to  settle  his  accounts  with  the  Massachusetts 
Puritans,  who  had  offended  him  anew  by  sending 
pro"visions  to  Fort  St.  Jean,  having  always  insisted 
that  they  were  free  to  trade  with  either  party. 
They,  on  their  side,  were  no  less  indignant  with 
him  for  his  seizure  of  Grafton's  vessel  and  harsh 
treatment  of  him  and  his  men. 

After  some  preUminary  negotiation  and  some  rather 
sharp  correspondence,  D'Aunay,  in  September,  1646, 
sent  a  pinnace  to  Boston,  bearing  his  former  envoy, 
Marie,  accompanied  by  his  own  secretary  and  by  one 
Monsieur  Louis. 

It  was  Sunday,  the  Puritan  Sabbath,  when  the 
three  envoys  arrived;  and  the  pious  inhabitants  were 


42  THE   VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [164B. 

preparing  for  the  afternoon  sermon.  Marie  and  his 
two  colleagues  were  met  at  the  wharf  by  two  militia 
officers,  and  conducted  through  the  silent  and  dreary 
streets  to  the  house  of  Captain,  now  Major,  Gibbons, 
who  seems  to  have  taken  upon  himself  in  an 
especial  manner  the  office  of  entertaining  strangers 
of  consequence. 

All  was  done  with  much  civility,  but  no  ceremony ; 
for  the  Lord's  Day  must  be  kept  inviolate.  Winthrop, 
who  had  again  been  chosen  governor,  now  sent  an 
officer,  with  a  guard  of  musketeers,  to  invite  the 
envoys  to  his  own  house.  Here  he  regaled  them 
with  wine  and  sweetmeats,  and  then  informed  them 
of  "our  manner  that  all  men  either  come  to  our 
publick  meetings,  or  keep  themselves  quiet  in  their 
houses."^  He  then  laid  before  them  such  books  in 
Latin  and  French  as  he  had,  and  told  them  that  they 
were  free  to  walk  in  his  garden.  Though  the  diver- 
sion offered  was  no  doubt  of  the  dullest,  —  since  the 
literary  resources  of  the  colony  then  included  little 
besides  arid  theology,  and  the  walk  in  the  garden 
promised  but  moderate  delights  among  the  bitter 
pot-herbs  provided  against  days  of  fasting,  —  the 
victims  resigned  themselves  with  good  grace,  and,  as 
the  governor  tells  us,  "gave  no  offence."  Sunset 
came  at  last,  and  set  the  captives  free. 

On  Monday  both  sides  fell  to  business.  The 
envoys  showed  their  credentials ;  but,  as  the  commis- 
sioners  of   the   United   Colonies   were    not    yet    in 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  273,  275. 


1646.]  THE  ENVOYS.  43 

session,  nothing  conclusive  could  be  done  till  Tues- 
day. Then,  all  being  assembled,  each  party  made 
its  complaints  of  the  conduct  of  the  other,  and  a 
long  discussion  followed.  Meals  were  provided  for 
the  three  visitors  at  the  "ordinary,"  or  inn,  where 
the  magistrates  dined  during  the  sessions  of  the 
General  Court.  The  governor,  as  their  host,  always 
sat  with  them  at  the  board,  and  strained  his  Latin  to 
do  honor  to  his  guests.  They,  on  their  part,  that 
courtesies  should  be  evenly  divided,  went  every 
morning  at  eight  o'clock  to  the  governor's  house, 
whence  he  accompanied  them  to  the  place  of  meet- 
ing; and  at  night  he,  or  some  of  the  commissioners 
in  his  stead,  attended  them  to  their  lodging  at  the 
house  of  Major  Gibbons. 

Serious  questions  were  raised  on  both  sides;  but 
as  both  wanted  peace,  explanations  were  mutually 
made  and  accepted.  The  chief  difficulty  lay  in  the 
undeniable  fact,  that,  in  escorting  La  Tour  to  his 
fort  m  1643,  the  Massachusetts  volunteers  had 
chased  D'Aunay  to  Port  Royal,  killed  some  of  his 
men,  burned  his  mill,  and  robbed  his  pinnace,  for 
which  wrongs  the  envoys  demanded  heavy  damages. 
It  was  true  that  the  governor  and  magistrates  had 
forbidden  acts  of  aggression  on  the  part  of  the  volun- 
teers ;  but  on  the  other  hand  they  had  had  reason  to 
believe  that  their  prohibition  would  be  disregarded, 
and  had  taken  no  measures  to  enforce  it.  The 
envoys  clearly  had  good  ground  of  complaint;  and 
here,  says  Winthrop,  "they  did  stick  two  days."     At 


44  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1646. 

last  they  yielded  so  far  as  to  declare  that  what 
D'Aunay  wanted  was  not  so  much  compensation  in 
money  as  satisfaction  to  his  honor  by  an  acknowledg- 
ment of  their  fault  on  the  part  of  the  Massachusetts 
authorities ;  and  they  further  declared  that  he  would 
accept  a  moderate  present  in  token  of  such  acknowl- 
edgment. The  difficulty  now  was  to  find  such  a 
present.  The  representatives  of  Massachusetts  pres- 
ently bethought  themselves  of  a  "very  fair  new 
sedan  "  which  the  Viceroy  of  Mexico  had  sent  to  his 
sister,  and  which  had  been  captured  in  the  West 
Indies  by  one  Captain  Cromwell,  a  corsair,  who 
gave  it  to  "our  governor."  Winthrop,  to  whom  it 
was  entirely  useless,  gladly  parted  with  it  in  such  a 
cause;  and  the  sedan,  being  graciously  accepted, 
ended  the  discussion.  ^  The  treaty  was  signed  in 
duplicate  by  the  commissioners  of  the  United  Colonies 
and  the  envoys  of  D'Aunay,  and  peace  was  at  last 
concluded. 

The  conference  had  been  conducted  with  much 
courtesy  on  both  sides.  One  small  cloud  appeared, 
but  soon  passed  away.  The  French  envoys  displayed 
the  jieur-de-lys  at  the  masthead  of  their  pinnace  as 
she  lay  in  the  harbor.  The  townsmen  were  incensed ; 
and  Monsieur  Marie  was  told  that  to  fly  foreign 
colors  in  Boston  harbor  was  not  according  to  custom. 
He  insisted  for  a  time,  but  at  length  ordered  the 
offending  flag  to  be  lowered. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  of  September  the  envoys  bade 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  274. 


1647.]  BEHAVIOR  OF  LA  TOUR.  45 

farewell  to  Winthrop,  who  had  accompanied  them  to 
their  pinnace  with  a  guard  of  honor.  Five  cannon 
saluted  them  from  Boston,  five  from  "the  Castle," 
and  three  from  Charlestown.  A  supply  of  mutton 
and  a  keg  of  sherry  were  sent  on  board  their  ves- 
sel; and  then,  after  firing  an  answering  salute  from 
their  swivels,  they  stood  down  the  bay  till  their  sails 
disappeared  among  the  islands- 
La  Tour  had  now  no  more  to  hope  from  his  late 
supporters.  He  had  lost  his  fort,  and,  what  was 
worse,  he  had  lost  his  indomitable  wife.  Throughout 
the  winter  that  followed  his  disaster  he  had  been 
entertained  by  Samuel  Maverick,  at  his  house  on 
Noddle's  Island.  In  the  spring  he  begged  hard  for 
further  help;  and,  as  he  begged  in  vain,  he  sailed 
for  Newfoundland  to  make  the  same  petition  to  Sir 
David  Kirke,  who  then  governed  that  island.  Kirke 
refused,  but  lent  him  a  pinnace  and  sent  him  back  to 
Boston.  Here  some  merchants  had  the  good  nature 
or  folly  to  intrust  him  with  goods  for  the  Indian 
trade,  to  the  amount  of  four  hundred  pounds.  Thus 
equipped,  he  sailed  for  Acadia  in  Kirke 's  pimiace, 
manned  with  his  own  followers  and  five  New  England 
men.  On  reaching  Cape  Sable,  he  conspired  with 
the  master  of  the  pinnace  and  his  own  men  to  seize 
the  vessel  and  set  the  New  England  sailors  ashore, 
—  which  was  done.  La  Tour,  it  is  said,  shooting  one 
of  them  in  the  face  with  a  pistol.  It  was  winter, 
and  the  outcasts  roamed  along  the  shore  for  a  fort- 
night,  half  frozen  and  half  starved,    till   they  were 


46  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1647. 

met  by  Micmac  Indians,  who  gave  them  food  and  a 
boat,  —  in  which,  by  rare  good  fortune,  they  reached 
Boston,  where  their  story  convinced  the  most  infatu- 
ated that  they  had  harbored  a  knave.  "Whereby," 
solemnly  observes  the  pious  but  much  mortified 
Winthrop,  who  had  been  La  Tour's  best  friend,  "it 
appeared  (as  the  Scripture  saith)  that  there  is  no 
confidence  in  an  unfaithful  or  carnal  man."^ 

When  the  capture  of  Fort  St.  Jean  was  known  at 
court  the  young  King  was  well  pleased,  and  promised 
to  send  D'Aunay  the  gift  of  a  ship; ^  but  he  forgot 
to  keep  his  word,  and  requited  his  faithful  subject 
with  the  less  costly  reward  of  praises  and  honors. 
After  a  preamble  reciting  his  merits,  and  especially 
his  "care,  courage,  and  valor"  in  "taking,  by  our 
express  order,  and  reducing  again  under  our  authority 
the  fort  on  the  St.  John  which  La  Tour  had  rebel- 
liously  occupied  with  the  aid  of  foreign  sectaries," 
the  King  confirms  D'Aunay's  authority  in  Acadia, 
and  extends  it  on  paper  from  the  St.  Lawrence  to 
Virginia,  —  empowering  him  to  keep  for  himself  such 
parts  of  this  broad  domain  as  he  might  want,  and 
grant  out  the  rest  to  others,  who  were  to  hold  of  him 
as  vassals.  He  could  build  forts  and  cities,  at  his 
own  expense;  command  by  land  and  sea;  make  war 
\*"  /  or  peace  within  the  limits  of  his  grant ;  appoint 
officers  of  government,  justice,  and  police;  and,  in 
short,    exercise   sovereign    power,    with   the   simple 

1  Winthrop,  ii.  20G. 

2  Le  Roy  a  M.  d'Aunay  Charnisni/,  28  Sept.,  1645. 


1647.]  D'AUNAY'S   REWARD.  47 

reservation  of  homage  to  the  King,  and  a  tenth  part 
of  all  gold,  silver,  and  copper  to  the  royal  treasury. 
A  full  monopoly  of  the  fur -trade  throughout  his 
dominion  was  conferred  on  him;  and  any  infringe- 
ment of  it  was  to  be  punished  by  confiscation  of  ships 
and  goods,  and  thirty  thousand  livres  of  damages. 
On  his  part  he  was  enjoined  to  "  establish  the  name, 
power,  and  authority  of  the  King;  subject  the  nations 
to  his  rule,  and  teach  them  the  knowledge  of  the 
true  God  and  the  light  of  the  Christian  faith.  "^ 
Acadia,  in  short,  was  made  an  hereditary  fief;  and 
D'Aunay  and  his  heirs  became  lords  of  a  domain  as 
large  as  a  European  kingdom. 

D'Aunay  had  spent  his  substance  in  the  task  of 
civilizing  a  wilderness. ^  The  King  had  not  helped 
him;  and  though  he  belonged  to  a  caste  which  held 
commerce  in  contempt,  he  must  be  a  fur- trader  or  a 
bankrupt.  La  Tour's  Fort  St.  Jean  was  a  better 
trading-station  than  Port  Royal,  and  it  had  wofully 
abridged  D'Aunay's  profits.  Hence  an  ignoble  com- 
petition in  beaver-skins  had  greatly  embittered  their 
quarrel.  All  this  was  over;  Fort  St.  Jean,  the  best 
trading-stand  in  Acadia,  was  now  in  its  conqueror's 
hands ;  and  his  monopoly  was  no  longer  a  mere  name, 
but  a  reality. 

^  Lettre  du  Roy  de  Gouverneiir  et  Lieutenant  General  es  costes  de 
I'Acadie  pour  Charles  de  Menou  d'Aulnay  Charnisay,  Fevrier,  1647. 
Lettre  de  la  Reyne  regente  au  meme,  13  Avril,  1647. 

2  His  heirs  estimated  his  outlays  for  the  colony  at  800,000  livres. 
Memoir e  des  filles  dufeu  Seicpieur  d'Aulnay  Charnisay,  1686.  Placet 
de  Joseph  de  Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  Jils  aine  du  feu  Charles  de 
Menou  d'Aunay  Charnisay,  1658. 


48  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1650. 

Everything  promised  a  thriving  trade  and  a  growing 
colony,  when  the  scene  was  suddenly  changed.  On 
the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  1650,  a  dark  and  stormy 
day,  D'Aunay  and  his  valet  were  in  a  birch  canoe  in 
the  basin  of  Port  Royal,  not  far  from  the  mouth  of 
the  Annapolis.  Perhaps  neither  master  nor  man  was 
skilled  in  the  management  of  the  treacherous  craft 
that  bore  them.  The  canoe  overset.  D'Aunay  and 
the  valet  clung  to  it  and  got  astride  of  it,  one  at 
each  end.  There  they  sat,  sunk  to  the  shoulders, 
the  canoe  though  under  water  having  buoyancy 
enough  to  keep  them  from  sinking  farther.  So  they 
remained  an  hour  and  a  half;  and  at  the  end  of  that 
time  D'Aunay  was  dead,  not  from  drowning  but 
from  cold,  for  the  water  still  retained  the  chill  of 
winter.  The  valet  remained  alive ;  and  in  this  con- 
dition they  were  found  by  Indians  and  brought  to 
the  north  shore  of  the  Annapolis,  whither  Father 
Ignace,  the  Superior  of  the  Capuchins,  went  to  find 
the  body  of  his  patron,  brought  it  to  the  fort,  and 
buried  it  in  the  chapel,  in  presence  of  his  wife  and 
all  the  soldiers  and  inhabitants.  ^ 

The  Father  Superior  highly  praises  the  dead  chief, 
and  is  astonished  that  the  earth  does  not  gape  and 
devour  the  slanderers  who  say  that  he  died  in  desper- 
ation, as  one  abandoned  of  God.  He  admits  that  in 
former  times  cavillei's  might  have  found  wherewith" 
to  accuse  him,  but  declares  that  before  his  death  he 
had  amended  all  his  faults.     This  is  the  testimony 

1  Lf.ttre  du  Rev.  P.  Itjnace,  Capucin,  6  Aoust,  1653. 


1651.]  LA  TOUR  IN   FAVOR.  49 

of  a  Capuchin,  whose  fraternity  he  had  always 
favored.  The  Rdcollets,  on  the  other  hand,  whose 
patron  was  La  Tour,  complained  that  D'Aunay  had 
ill-used  them,  and  demanded  redress.  ^  He  seems  to 
have  been  a  favorable  example  of  his  class ;  loyal  to 
his  faith  and  his  King,  tempering  pride  with  cour- 
tesy, and  generally  true  to  his  cherished  ideal  of  the 
gentilhomme  Frangais.  In  his  qualities,  as  in  his 
birth,  he  was  far  above  his  rival;  and  his  death  was 
the  ruin  of  the  only  French  colony  in  Acadia  that 
deserved  the  name. 

At  the  news  of  his  enemy's  fate  a  new  hope  pos- 
sessed La  Tour.  He  still  had  agents  in  France 
interested  to  serve  him ;  while  the  father  of  D'Aunay, 
who  acted  as  his  attorney,  was  feeble  with  age,  and 
his  children  were  too  young  to  defend  their  interests. 

There  is  an  extraordinary  document  bearing  date 
February,  1651,  or  less  than  a  year  after  D'Aunay's 
death.  It  is  a  complete  reversal  of  the  decree  of 
1647  in  his  favor.  La  Tour  suddenly  appears  as  the 
favorite  of  royalty,  and  all  the  graces  before  lavished 
on  his  enemy  are  now  heaped  upon  liim.  The  lately 
proscribed  "rebel  and  traitor"  is  confirmed  as  gover- 
nor and  lieutenant-general  in  New  France.  His 
services  to  God  and  the  King  are  rehearsed  "as  of 
our  certain  knowledge,"  and  he  is  praised  with  the 
same  emphasis  used  towards  D'Aunay  in  the  decree 

1  Papers  to  this  effect  are  among  the  many  pieces  cited  in  the 
Arret  du  Conseil  d'Etat  a  I'eqard  du  Seigneur  de  la  Tour,  6  Mars, 
1644. 

VOL.  I.  —  4 


50  THE   VICTOR  VANQUISHED.  [1651. 

of  1647,  and  almost  in  the  same  words.  The  paper 
goes  on  to  say  that  he,  La  Tour,  would  have  con- 
verted the  Indians  and  conquered  Acadia  for  the 
King  if  D'Aunay  had  not  prevented  him.i 

Unless  this  document  is  a  fabrication  in  the  inter- 
est of  La  Tour,  as  there  is  some  reason  to  believe,  it 
suggests  strange  reflections  on  colonial  administra- 
tion during  the  minority  of  Louis  XIV.  Genuine  or 
not,  La  Tour  profited  by  it,  and  after  a  visit  to 
France,  which  proved  a  successful  and  fruitful  one, 
he  returned  to  Acadia  with  revived  hopes.  The 
widow  of  D'Aunay  had  eight  children,  all  minors; 
and  their  grandfather,  the  octogenarian  Rend  de 
Menou,  had  been  appointed  their  guardian.  He 
sent  an  incompetent  and  faithless  person  to  Port 
Royal  to  fulfil  the  wardship  of  which  he  was  no 
longer  capable. 

The  unfortunate  widow  and  her  children  needed 
better  help.  D'Aunay  had  employed  as  his  agent 
one  Le  Borgne,  a  merchant  of  Rochelle,  who  now 
succeeded  in  getting  the  old  man  under  his  influence, 
and  induced  him  to  sign  an  acknowledgment,  said 
to  be  false,  that  D'Aunay's  heirs  owed  him  260,000 

i  Confirmation  de  Gouvernenr  et  Lieutenant  General  pour  le  Roy  de 
la  Nouvelle  France,  a  la  Caste  de  I'Acadie,  an  Sr.  Charles  de  St. 
Etienne,  Chevalier  de  la  Tour,  27  Fev.,  1651.  A  copy  of  this  strange 
paper  is  before  me.  Comte  de  Menou,  and  after  him,  his  follower 
Moreau,  doubt  the  genuineness  of  the  document,  which,  however,  is 
alluded  to  without  suspicion  in  the  legal  paper  entitled  Memoire  in 
re  Charles  de  St.  Etienne,  Seigneur  de  la  Tour  (fils)  et  ses  freres  et 
soeurs,  1700.  This  Memoire  is  in  the  interest  of  the  heirs  of  La  Tour, 
and  is  to  be  judged  accordingly. 


1653.]  INTRIGUES  OF  LE  BORGNE.  51 

livres.^  Le  Borgne  next  came  to  Port  Royal  to  push 
his  schemes ;  and  here  he  inveigled  or  frightened  the 
widow  into  signing  a  paper  to  the  effect  that  she  and 
her  children  owed  him  205,286  livres.  It  was  fortu- 
nate for  his  unscrupulous  plans  that  he  had  to  do 
with  the  soft  and  tractable  Madame  d'Aunay,  and 
not  with  the  high-spirited  and  intelligent  Amazon 
Madame  La  Tour.  Le  Borgne  now  seized  on  Port 
Royal  as  security  for  the  alleged  debts;  while  La 
Tour  on  his  return  from  his  visit  to  France  induced 
the  perplexed  and  helpless  widow  to  restore  to  him 
Fort  St.  Jean,  conquered  by  her  late  husband. 
Madame  d'Aunay,  beset  with  insidious  enemies,  saw 
herself  and  her  children  in  danger  of  total  ruin.  She 
applied  to  the  Due  de  Vendome,  grand-master,  chief, 
and  superintendent  of  navigation,  and  offered  to 
share  all  her  Acadian  claims  with  him  if  he  would 
help  her  in  her  distress ;  but,  from  the  first,  Vendome 
looked  more  to  his  own  interests  than  to  hers.  La 
Tour  was  not  satisfied  with  her  concessions  to  him, 
and  perplexing  questions  rose  between  them  touching 
land  claims  and  the  fur-trade.  To  end  these  troubles 
she  took  a  desperate  step,  and  on  the  twenty-fourth 
of  February,  1653,  married  her  tormentor,  the  foe  of 
her  late  husband,  who  had  now  been  dead  not  quite 
three  years. ^  Her  chief  thought  seems  to  have  been 
for  her  children,  whose  rights  are  guarded,  though 

1  Memoire  in  re  Charles  de  St.  Etienne  (fils  de  la  Tour),  etc. 

2  Eameau,  i.  120.    Menou  and  Moreau  think  that  this  marriage 
took  place  two  or  three  years  later. 


62  THE  VICTOR  VANQUISHED.      [1654-1710. 

to  little  purpose,  in  the  marriage  contract.  She  and 
La  Tour  took  up  their  abode  at  Fort  St.  Jean.  Of 
the  children  of  her  first  marriage  four  were  boys  and 
four  were  girls.  They  were  ruined  at  last  by  the 
harpies  leagued  to  plunder  them,  and  sought  refuge 
in  France,  where  the  boys  were  all  killed  in  the  wars 
of  Louis  XIV.,  and  at  least  three  of  the  girls  became 


nuns. 


Now  follow  complicated  disputes,  without  dignity 
or  interest,  and  turning  chiefly  on  the  fur -trade. 
Le  Borgne  and  his  son,  in  virtue  of  their  claims  on 
the  estate  of  D'Aunay,  which  were  sustained  by  the 
French  courts,  got  a  lion's  share  of  Acadia;  a  part 
fell  also  to  La  Tour  and  his  children  by  his  new  wife, 
while  Nicolas  Denys  kept  a  feeble  hold  on  the  shore 
of  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence  as  far  north  as  Cape 
Hosiers. 

War  again  broke  out  between  France  and  England, 
and  in  1654  Major  Robert  Sedgwick  of  Charlestown, 
Massachusetts,  who  had  served  in  the  civil  war  as  a 
major-general  of  Cromwell,  led  a  small  New  England 
force  to  Acadia  under  a  commission  from  the  Pro- 
tector, captured  Fort  St.  Jean,  Port  Royal,  and  all 
the  other  French  stations,  and  conquered  the  colony 
for  Ee gland.  It  was  restored  to  France  by  the 
treaty  of  Breda,  and  captured  again  in  1690  by  Sir 
William  Phips.  The  treaty  of  Ryswick  again  restored 
it  to  France,  till,  in  1710,  it  was  finally  seized  for 
England  by  General  Nicholson. 

1  Menou,  L'Acadie  colonisie. 


1666-1830.]    DESCENDANTS  OF  LA  TOUR.  53 

When,  after  Sedgwick's  expedition,  the  English 
were  in  possession  of  Acadia,  La  Tour,  not  for  the 
first  time,  tried  to  fortify  his  claims  by  a  British  title, 
and,  jointly  with  Thomas  Temple  and  William 
Crown,  obtained  a  grant  of  the  colony  from  Cromwell, 
—  though  he  soon  after  sold  his  share  to  his 
copartner.  Temple.  He  seems  to  have  died  in  1666. ^ 
Descendants  of  his  were  living  in  Acadia  in  1830, 
and  some  may  probably  still  be  found  there.  As  for 
D'Aunay,  no  trace  of  his  blood  is  left  in  the  land 
where  he  gave  wealth  and  life  for  France  and  the 
Church. 

1  Rameau,  i.  122. 


SECTION   SECOOT). 
CANADA    A    MISSION. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

1653-1658. 

THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA. 

The  Iroquois  War.  —  Father  Poncet:  his  Adventures. — 
Jesuit  Boldness.  —  Le  Motne's  Mission.  —  Chaumonot  and 
Dablon.  —  Iroquois  Ferocity.  —  The  Mohawk  Kidnappers. 
—  Critical  Position.  —  The  Colony  of  Onondaga.  —  Speech 
OF  Chaumonot.  —  Omens  of  Destruction.  —  Device  of  the 
Jesuits.  —  The  Medicine  Feast. —  The  Escape. 

In  the  summer  of  1653  all  Canada  turned  to  fast- 
ing and  penance,  processions,  vows,  and  supplica- 
tions. The  saints  and  the  Virgin  were  beset  with 
unceasing  prayer.  The  wretched  little  colony  was 
like  some  puny  garrison,  starving  and  sick,  com- 
passed with  inveterate  foes,  supplies  cut  off,  and 
succor  hopeless. 

At  Montreal  —  the  advance  guard  of  the  settle- 
ments, a  sort  of  Castle  Dangerous,  held  by  about 
fifty  Frenchmen,  and  said  by  a  pious  writer  of  the 
day  to  exist  only  by  a  continuous  miracle  —  some  two 


1653.]  THE  IROQUOIS  WAR.  55 

hundred  Iroquois  fell  upon  twenty-six  Frenchmen. 
The  Christians  were  outmatched,  eight  to  one ;  but, 
says  the  chronicle,  the  Queen  of  Heaven  was  on  their 
side,  and  the  Son  of  Mary  refuses  nothing  to  his 
holy  mother.  1  Through  her  intercession,  the  Iroquois 
shot  so  wildly  that  at  their  first  fire  every  bullet 
missed  its  mark,  and  they  met  with  a  bloody  defeat. 
The  palisaded  settlement  of  Three  Rivers,  though  in 
a  position  less  exposed  than  that  of  Montreal,  was 
in  no  less  jeopardy.  A  noted  war-chief  of  the 
Mohawk  Iroquois  had  been  captured  here  the  year 
before,  and  put  to  death ;  and  his  tribe  swarmed  out, 
like  a  nest  of  angry  hornets,  to  revenge  him.  Not 
content  with  defeating  and  killing  the  commandant, 
Du  Plessis  Bochart,  they  encamped  during  the  winter 
in  the  neighboring  forest,  watching  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  surprise  the  place.  Hunger  drove  them 
off,  but  they  returned  in  the  spring,  infesting  every 
field  and  pathway;  till  at  length  some  six  hundred 
of  their  warriors  landed  in  secret  and  lay  hidden  in 
the  depths  of  the  woods,  silently  biding  their  time. 
Having  failed,  however,  in  an  artifice  designed  to 
lure  the  French  out  of  their  defences,  they  showed 
themselves  on  all  sides,  plundering,  burning,  and 
destroying,  up  to  the  palisades  of  the  fort.^ 

Of  the  three  settlements  which,  with  their  feeble 


1  Le  Mercier,  Relation,  1653,  3. 

2  So  bent  were  they  on  taking  the  place,  that  they  brought  their 
families,  in  order  to  make  a  permanent  settlement,  Marie  de 
riucarnation,  Lettre  du  6  Sept.,  1653. 


56  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

dependencies,  then  comprised  the  whole  of  Canada, 
Quebec  was  least  exposed  to  Indian  attacks,  being 
partially  covered  by  Montreal  and  Three  Rivers. 
Nevertheless,  there  was  no  safety  this  year,  even 
under  the  cannon  of  Fort  St.  Louis.  At  Cap  Rouge, 
a  few  miles  above,  the  Jesuit  Poncet  saw  a  poor 
woman  who  had  a  patch  of  corn  beside  her  cabin, 
but  could  find  nobody  to  harvest  it.  The  father 
went  to  seek  aid;  met  one  Mathurin  Franchetot, 
whom  he  persuaded  to  undertake  the  charitable  task, 
and  was  returning  with  him,  when  they  both  fell 
into  an  ambuscade  of  Iroquois,  who  seized  them  and 
dragged  them  off.  Thirty-two  men  embarked  in 
canoes  at  Quebec  to  follow  the  retreating  savages  and 
rescue  the  prisoners.  Pushing  rapidly  up  the  St. 
Lawrence,  they  approached  Three  Rivers,  found  it 
beset  by  the  Mohawks,  and  bravely  threw  them- 
selves into  it,  to  the  great  joy  of  its  defenders  and 
discouragement  of  the  assailants. 

Meanwhile,  the  intercession  of  the  Virgin  wrought 
new  marvels  at  Montreal,  and  a  bright  ray  of  hope 
beamed  forth  from  the  darkness  and  the  storm  to  cheer 
the  hearts  of  her  votaries.  It  was  on  the  twenty -sixth 
of  June  that  sixty  of  the  Onondaga  Iroquois  appeared 
in  sight  of  the  fort,  shouting  from  a  distance  that 
they  came  on  an  errand  of  peace,  and  asking  safe- 
conduct  for  some  of  their  number.  Guns,  scalping- 
knives,  tomahawks,  were  all  laid  aside;  and,  with  a 
confidence  truly  astonishing,  a  deputation  of  chiefs, 
naked  and  defenceless,  came  into  the  midst  of  those 


1653.]  PACIFIC  OVERTURES.  67 

whom  they  had  betrayed  so  often.  The  French  had 
a  mind  to  seize  them,  and  pay  them  in  kind  for  past 
treachery;  but  they  refrained,  seeing  in  this  won- 
drous change  of  heart  the  manifest  hand  of  Heaven. 
Nevertheless,  it  can  be  explained  without  a  miracle. 
The  Iroquois,  or  at  least  the  western  nations  of  their 
league,  had  just  become  involved  in  war  with  their 
neighbors  the  Eries,^  and  "one  war  at  a  time"  was 
the  sage  maxim  of  their  policy. 

All  was  smiles  and  blandishment  in  the  fort  at 
Montreal ;  presents  were  exchanged,  and  the  deputies 
departed,  bearing  home  golden  reports  of  the  French. 
An  Oneida  deputation  soon  followed ;  but  the  enraged 
Mohawks  still  infested  Montreal  and  beleaguered 
Three  Rivers,  till  one  of  their  principal  chiefs  and 
four  of  their  best  warriors  were  captured  by  a  party 
of  Christian  Hurons.  Then,  seeing  themselves 
abandoned  by  the  other  nations  of  the  league  and 
left  to  wage  the  war  alone,  they  too  made  overtures 
of  peace. 

A  grand  council  was  held  at  Quebec.  Speeches 
were  made,  and  wampum-belts  exchanged.  The 
Iroquois  left  some  of  their  chief  men  as  pledges  of 
sincerity,  and  two  young  soldiers  offered  themselves 
as  reciprocal  pledges  on  the  part  of  the  French. 
The  war  was  over;  at  least  Canada  had  found  a 
moment  to  take  breath  for  the  next  struggle.     The 

1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  ii.  264.  The  Iroquois,  it  will  be 
remembered,  consisted  of  five  "nations,"  or  tribes,  —  the  Mohawks, 
Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas.  For  an  account  of 
them,  see  the  work  just  cited,  Introduction. 


58  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

fur-trade  was  restored  again,  with  promise  of  plenty ; 
for  the  beaver,  profiting  by  the  quarrels  of  their 
human  foes,  had  of  late  greatly  multiplied.  It  was 
a  change  from  death  to  life ;  for  Canada  lived  on  the 
beaver,  and  robbed  of  this,  her  only  sustenance,  had 
been  dying  slowly  since  the  strife  began.  ^ 

"  Yesterday, "  writes  Father  Le  Mercier,  "all  was 
dejection  and  gloom ;  to-day,  all  is  smiles  and  gayety. 
On  Wednesday,  massacre,  burning,  and  pillage;  on 
Thursday,  gifts  and  visits,  as  among  friends.  If  the 
Iroquois  have  their  hidden  designs,  so  too  has  God. 

"  On  the  day  of  the  Visitation  of  the  Holy  Virgin, 
the  chief,  Aontarisati,'^  so  regretted  by  the  Iroquois, 
was  taken  prisoner  by  our  Indians,  instructed  by  our 
fathers,  and  baptized;  and  on  the  same  day,  being 
put  to  death,  he  ascended  to  heaven.  I  doubt  not 
that  he  thanked  the  Virgin  for  his  misfortune  and 
the  blessing  that  followed,  and  that  he  prayed  to 
God  for  his  countrymen. 

"The  people  of  Montreal  made  a  solemn  vow  to 
celebrate  publicly  the  fete  of  this  mother  of  all  bless- 
ings ;  whereupon  the  Iroquois  came  to  ask  for  peace. 

"It  was  on  the  day  of  the  Assumption  of  this 
Queen  of  angels  and  of  men  that  the  Hurons  took  at 

1  According  to  Le  Mercier,  beaver  to  the  value  of  from  200,000 
to  300,000  livres  was  yearly  brought  down  to  the  colony  before  the 
destruction  of  the  Hurons  (1049-50).  Three  years  later,  not  one 
beaver-skin  was  brought  to  Montreal  during  a  twelvemonth,  and 
Three  Rivers  and  Quebec  had  barely  enough  to  pay  for  keeping  the 
fortifications  in  repair. 

2  The  chief  whose  death  had  so  enraged  the  Mohawks. 


1653.]        THE  WOES  OF  FATHER  PONCET.  59 

Montreal   that  other  famous   Iroquois  chief,   whose 
capture  caused  the  Mohawks  to  seek  our  alliance. 

"  On  the  day  when  the  Church  honors  the  Nativity 
of  the  Holy  Virgin,  the  Iroquois  granted  Father 
Poncet  his  life ;  and  he,  or  rather  the  Holy  Virgin 
and  the  holy  angels,  labored  so  well  in  the  work  of 
peace,  that  on  Saint  Michael's  Day  it  was  resolved  in 
a  council  of  the  elders  that  the  father  should  be  con- 
ducted to  Quebec,  and  a  lasting  treaty  made  with 
the  French."! 

Happy  as  was  this  consummation,  Father  Poncet's 
path  to  it  had  been  a  thorny  one.  He  has  left  us  his 
own  rueful  story,  written  in  obedience  to  the  com- 
mand of  his  superior.  He  and  his  companion  in 
misery  had  been  hurried  through  the  forests,  from 
Cap  Rouge  on  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  Indian  towns 
on  the  Mohawk.  He  tells  us  how  he  slept  among 
dank  weeds,  dropping  with  the  cold  dew ;  how  fright- 
ful colics  assailed  him  as  he  waded  waist-deep  through 
a  mountain  stream ;  how  one  of  his  feet  was  blistered 
and  one  of  his  legs  benumbed ;  how  an  Indian  snatched 
away  his  reliquary  and  lost  the  precious  contents. 
"I  had,"  he  says,  "a  picture  of  Saint  Ignatius  with 
our  Lord  bearing  the  cross,  and  another  of  Our  Lady 
of  Pity  surrounded  by  the  five  wounds  of  her  Son. 
They  were  my  joy  and  my  consolation;  but  I  hid 
them  in  a  bush,  lest  the  Indians  should  laugh  at 
them."  He  kept,  however,  a  little  image  of  the 
crown  of  thorns,  in  which  he  found  great  comfort, 
1  Relation,  1653,  18. 


60  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

as  well  as  in  communion  with  his  patron  saints,  Saint 
Raphael,  Saint  Martha,  and  Saint  Joseph.  On  one 
occasion  he  asked  these  celestial  friends  for  some- 
thing to  soothe  his  thirst,  and  for  a  bowl  of  broth  to 
revive  his  strength.  Scarcely  had  he  framed  the 
petition  when  an  Indian  gave  him  some  wild  plums ; 
and  in  the  evening,  as  he  lay  fainting  on  the  ground, 
another  brought  him  the  coveted  broth.  Weary  and 
forlorn,  he  reached  at  last  the  lower  Mohawk  town, 
where,  after  being  stripped,  and  with  his  companion 
forced  to  run  the  gantlet,  he  was  placed  on  a  scaffold 
of  bark,  surrounded  by  a  crowd  of  grinning  and 
mocking  savages.  As  it  began  to  rain,  they  took 
him  into  one  of  their  lodges,  and  amused  themselves 
by  making  him  dance,  sing,  and  perform  various 
fantastic  tricks  for  their  amusement.  He  seems  to 
have  done  his  best  to  please  them;  "but,"  adds  the 
chronicler,  "  I  will  say  in  passing,  that  as  he  did  not 
succeed  to  their  liking  in  these  buffooneries  (singeries)^ 
they  would  have  put  him  to  death  if  a  young  Huron 
prisoner  had  not  offered  himself  to  sing,  dance,  and 
make  wry  faces  in  place  of  the  father,  who  had  never 
learned  the  trade." 

Having  sufficiently  amused  themselves,  they  left 
him  for  a  time  in  peace ;  when  an  old  one-eyed  Indian 
approached,  took  his  hands,  examined  them,  selected 
the  left  forefinger,  and  calling  a  child  four  or  five 
years  old,  gave  him  a  knife,  and  told  him  to  cut  it 
off,  which  the  imp  proceeded  to  do,  his  victim  mean- 
while singing  the  Vexilla  Regis.     After  this  prelimi- 


1653.]  PEACE  CONCLUDED.  61 

nary,  they  would  have  burned  him,  like  Franchetot, 
his  unfortunate  companion,  had  not  a  squaw  happily 
adopted  him  in  place,  as  he  says,  of  a  deceased 
brother.  He  was  installed  at  once  in  the  lodge  of 
his  new  relatives,  where,  bereft  of  every  rag  of 
Christian  clothing,  and  attired  in  leggins,  moccasins, 
and  a  greasy  shirt,  the  astonished  father  saw  himself 
transformed  into  an  Iroquois.  But  his  deliverance 
was  at  hand.  A  special  agreement  providing  for  it 
had  formed  a  part  of  the  treaty  concluded  at  Quebec  ; 
and  he  now  learned  that  he  was  to  be  restored  to  his 
countrymen.  After  a  march  of  almost  intolerable 
hardship,  he  saw  himself  once  more  among  Christians, 
—  Heaven,  as  he  modestly  thinks,  having  found  him 
unworthy  of  martyrdom. 

"At  last,"  he  writes,  "we  reached  Montreal  on 
the  twenty-first  of  October,  the  nine  weeks  of  my  cap- 
tivity being  accomplished,  in  honor  of  Saint  Michael 
and  all  the  holy  angels.  On  the  sixth  of  November 
the  Iroquois  who  conducted  me  made  their  presents  to 
confirm  the  peace;  and  thus,  on  a  Sunday  evening, 
eighty-and-one  daj'S  after  my  capture,  —  that  is  to 
say,  nine  times  nine  days,  —  this  great  business  of 
the  peace  was  happily  concluded,  the  holy  angels 
showing  by  this  number  nine,  which  is  specially 
dedicated  to  them,  the  part  they  bore  in  this  holy 
work."^  This  incessant  supernaturalism  is  the  key 
to  the  early  history  of  New  France. 

1  Poncet  in  Relation,  1653, 17.  On  Poncet's  captivity  see  also 
Morale  Pratique  des  Jesuites,  vol.  xxxiv.  (4to)  chap.  xii. 


62  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1653. 

Peace  was  made;  but  would  peace  endure ?  There 
was  little  chance  of  it,  and  this  for  several  reasons. 
First,  the  native  fickleness  of  the  Iroquois,  who, 
astute  and  politic  to  a  surprising  degree,  were  in 
certain  respects,  like  all  savages,  mere  grown-up 
children.  Next,  their  total  want  of  control  over 
their  fierce  and  capricious  young  warriors,  any  one 
of  whom  could  break  the  peace  with  impunity  when- 
ever he  saw  fit ;  and,  above  all,  the  strong  probability 
that  the  Iroquois  had  made  peace  in  order,  under 
cover  of  it,  to  butcher  or  kidnap  the  unhappy  rem- 
nant of  the  Hurons  who  were  living,  under  French 
protection,  on  the  island  of  Orleans,  immediately 
below  Quebec.  I  have  already  told  the  story  of  the 
destruction  of  this  people  and  of  the  Jesuit  missions 
established  among  them.^  The  conquerors  were 
eager  to  complete  their  bloody  triumph  by  seizing 
upon  the  refugees  of  Orleans,  killing  the  elders,  and 
strengthening  their  own  tribes  by  the  adoption  of  the 
women,  children,  and  youths.  The  Mohawks  and 
the  Onondagas  were  competitors  for  the  prize.  Each 
coveted  the  Huron  colony,  and  each  was  jealous  lest 
his  rival  should  pounce  upon  it  first. 

When  the  Mohawks  brought  home  Poncet,  they 
covertly  gave  wampum-belts  to  the  Huron  chiefs, 
and  invited  them  to  remove  to  their  villages.  It  was 
the  wolf's  invitation  to  the  lamb.  The  Hurons, 
aghast  with  terror,  went  secretly  to  the  Jesuits,  and 
told  them  that  demons  had  whispered  in  their  ears  an 
^  See  "  Jesuits  in  Nortli  America." 


1653.]  JESUIT  BOLDNESS.  63 

invitation  to  destruction.  So  helpless  were  both  the 
Hurons  and  their  French  supporters,  that  they  saw- 
no  recourse  but  dissimulation.  The  Hurons  promised 
to  go,  and  only  sought  excuses  to  gain  time. 

The  Onondagas  had  a  deeper  plan.  Their  towns 
were  already  full  of  Huron  captives,  former  converts 
of  the  Jesuits,  cherishing  their  memory  and  con- 
stantly repeating  their  praises.  Hence  their  tyrants 
conceived  the  idea  that  by  planting  at  Onondaga  a 
colony  of  Frenchmen  under  the  direction  of  these 
beloved  fathers,  the  Hurons  of  Orleans,  disarmed  of 
suspicion,  might  readily  be  led  to  join  them.  Other 
motives,  as  we  shall  see,  tended  to  the  same  end,  and 
the  Onondaga  deputies  begged,  or  rather  demanded, 
that  a  colony  of  Frenchmen  should  be  sent  among  them. 

Here  was  a  dilemma.  Was  not  this,  like  the 
Mohawk  invitation  to  the  Hurons,  an  invitation  to 
butchery?  On  the  other  hand,  to  refuse  would 
probably  kindle  the  war  afresh.  The  Jesuits  had 
long  nursed  a  project  bold  to  temerity.  Their  great 
Huron  mission  was  ruined ;  but  might  not  another  be 
built  up  among  the  authors  of  this  ruin,  and  the 
Iroquois  themselves,  tamed  by  the  power  of  the 
Faith,  be  annexed  to  the  kingdoms  of  Heaven  and 
of  France  ?  Thus  would  peace  be  restored  to  Canada, 
a  barrier  of  fire  opposed  to  the  Dutch  and  English 
heretics,  and  the  power  of  the  Jesuits  vastly  increased. 
Yet  the  time  was  hardly  ripe  for  such  an  attempt. 
Before  thrusting  a  head  into  the  tiger's  jaws,  it 
would  be  well  to  try  the  effect  of  thrusting  in  a 


64  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1654. 

hand.  They  resolved  to  compromise  with  the 
danger,  and  before  risking  a  colony  at  Onondaga  to 
send  thither  an  envoy  who  could  soothe  the  Indians, 
confirm  them  in  pacific  designs,  and  pave  the  way 
for  more  decisive  steps.  The  choice  fell  on  Father 
Simon  Le  Moyne. 

The  errand  was  mainly  a  political  one;  and  this 
sagacious  and  able  priest,  versed  in  Indian  languages 
and  customs,  was  well  suited  to  do  it.  "On  the 
second  day  of  the  month  of  July,  the  festival  of 
the  Visitation  of  .the  Most  Holy  Virgin,  ever  favor- 
able to  our  enterprises.  Father  Simon  Le  Moyne  set 
out  from  Quebec  for  the  country  of  the  Onondaga 
Iroquois."  In  these  words  does  Father  Le  Mercier 
chronicle  the  departure  of  his  brother  Jesuit.  Scarcely 
was  he  gone  when  a  band  of  Mohawl^,  under  a 
redoubtable  half-breed  known  as  the  Flemish  Bastard, 
arrived  at  Quebec;  and  when  they  heard  that  the 
envoy  was  to  go  to  the  Onondagas  without  visiting 
their  tribe,  they  took  the  imagined  slight  in  high 
dudgeon,  displaying  such  jealousy  and  ire  that  a 
letter  was  sent  after  Le  Moyne,  directing  him  to  pro- 
ceed to  the  Mohawk  towns  before  his  return.  But 
he  was  already  beyond  reach,  and  the  angry  Mohawks 
were  left  to  digest  their  wrath. 

At  Montreal,  Le  Moyne  took  a  canoe,  a  young 
Frenchman,  and  two  or  three  Indians,  and  began  the 
tumultuous  journey  of  the  Upper  St.  Lawrence. 
Nature,  or  habit,  had  taught  him  to  love  the  wilder- 
ness life.     He  and  his  companions  had  struggled  all 


1654.]  FATHER  LE  MOYNE.  65 

day  against  the  surges  of  La  Chine,  and  were  biv- 
ouacked at  evening  by  the  Lake  of  St.  Louis,  when 
a  cloud  of  mosquitoes  fell  upon  them,  followed  by  a 
shower  of  warm  rain.  The  father,  stretched  under 
a  tree,  seems  clearly  to  have  enjoyed  himself.  "  It 
is  a  pleasure,"  he  writes,  "the  sweetest  and  most 
innocent  imaginable,  to  have  no  other  shelter  than 
trees  planted  by  Nature  since  the  creation  of  the 
world."  Sometimes,  during  their  journey,  this 
primitive  tent  proved  insufficient,  and  they  would 
build  a  bark  hut  or  find  a  partial  shelter  under  their 
inverted  canoe.  Now  they  glided  smoothly  over  the 
sunny  bosom  of  the  calm  and  smiling  river,  and  now 
strained  every  nerve  to  fight  their  slow  way  against 
the  rapids,  dragging  their  canoe  upward  in  the 
shallow  water  by  the  shore,  as  one  leads  an  unwilling 
horse  by  the  bridle,  or  shouldering  it  and  bearing  it 
through  the  forest  to  the  smoother  current  above. 
Game  abounded;  and  they  saw  great  herds  of  elk 
quietly  defiling  between  the  water  and  the  woods, 
with  little  heed  of  men,  who  in  that  perilous  region 
found  employment  enough  in  hunting  one  another. 

At  the  entrance  of  Lake  Ontario  they  met  a  party 
of  Iroquois  fishermen,  who  proved  friendly,  and 
guided  them  on  their  way.  Ascending  the  Onondaga, 
they  neared  their  destination ;  and  now  all  misgivings 
as  to  their  reception  at  the  Iroquois  capital  were  dis- 
pelled. The  inhabitants  came  to  meet  them,  bring- 
ing roasting  ears  of  the  young  maize  and  bread  made 
of  its  pulp,   than  which  they  knew  no  luxury  more 

VOL.    I.  —  5 


66  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1654. 

exquisite.  Their  faces  beamed  welcome.  Le  Moyne 
was  astonished.  "I  never,"  he  says,  "saw  the  like 
among  Indians  before."  They  were  flattered  by  his 
visit,  and,  for  the  moment,  were  glad  to  see  him. 
They  hoped  for  great  advantages  from  the  residence 
of  Frenchmen  among  them ;  and  having  the  Erie  war 
on  their  hands,  they  wished  for  peace  with  Canada. 
"One  would  call  me  brother,"  writes  Le  Moyne; 
"another,  uncle;  another,  cousin.  I  never  had  so 
many  relations." 

He  was  overjoyed  to  find  that  many  of  the  Huron 
converts,  who  had  long  been  captives  at  Onondaga, 
had  not  forgotten  the  teachings  of  their  Jesuit 
instructors.  Such  influence  as  they  had  with  their 
conquerors  was  sure  to  be  exerted  in  behalf  of  the 
French.  Deputies  of  the  Senecas,  Cayugas,  and 
Oneidas  at  length  arrived,  and  on  the  tenth  of  August 
the  criers  passed  through  the  town,  summoning  all 
to  hear  the  words  of  Onontio.  The  naked  dignita- 
ries, sitting,  squatting,  or  l}dng  at  full  length, 
thronged  the  smoky  hall  of  council.  The  father 
knelt  and  prayed  in  a  loud  voice,  invoking  the  aid  of 
Heaven,  cursing  the  demons  who  are  spirits  of  dis- 
cord, and  calling  on  the  tutelar  angels  of  the  country 
to  open  the  ears  of  his  listeners.  Then  he  opened 
his  packet  of  presents  and  began  his  speech.  "  I  was 
full  two  hours,"  he  says,  "in  making  it,  speaking  in 
the  tone  of  a  chief,  and  walking  to  and  fro,  after 
their  fashion,  like  an  actor  on  a  theatre."  Not  only 
did  he  imitate  the  prolonged  accents  of  the  Iroquois 


1654.]  LE  MOYNE  AT  ONONDAGA.  67 

orators,  but  he  adopted  and  improved  their  figures  of 
speech,  and  addressed  them  in  turn  by  their  respective 
tribes,  bands,  and  families,  calling  their  men  of  note 
by  name,  as  if  he  had  been  born  among  them.  They 
were  delighted ;  and  their  ejaculations  of  approval  — 
hoh-hoh-Jioh  —  came  thick  and  fast  at  every  pause  of 
his  harangue.  Especially  were  they  pleased  with  the 
eighth,  ninth,  tenth,  and  eleventh  presents,  whereby 
the  reverend  speaker  gave  to  the  four  upper  nations 
of  the  league  four  hatchets  to  strike  their  new  ene- 
mies, the  Eries;  while  by  another  present  he  meta- 
phorically daubed  their  faces  with  the  war-paint. 
However  it  may  have  suited  the  character  of  a  Chris- 
tian priest  to  hound  on  these  savage  hordes  to  a  war 
of  extermination  which  they  had  themselves  pro- 
voked, it  is  certain  that,  as  a  politician,  Le  Moyne 
did  wisely;  since  in  the  war  with  the  Eries  lay  the 
best  hope  of  peace  for  the  French. 

The  reply  of  the  Indian  orator  was  friendly  to 
overfloAving.  He  prayed  his  French  brethren  to 
choose  a  spot  on  the  lake  of  Onondaga,  where  they 
might  dwell  in  the  country  of  the  Iroquois,  as  they 
dwelt  already  in  their  hearts.  Le  Moyne  promised, 
and  made  two  presents  to  confirm  the  pledge.  Then, 
his  mission  fulfilled,  he  set  out  on  his  return, 
attended  by  a  troop  of  Indians.  As  he  approached 
the  lake,  his  escort  showed  him  a  large  spring  of 
water,  possessed,  as  they  told  him,  by  a  bad  spirit. 
Le  Moyne  tasted  it,  then  boiled  a  little  of  it,  and 
produced  a  quantity  of  excellent  salt.     He  had  dis- 


68  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.       [1654-55. 

covered  the  famous  salt-springs  of  Onondaga.  Fish- 
ing and  hunting,  the  party  pursued  their  way  till,  at 
noon  of  the  seventh  of  September,  Le  Moyne  reached 
Montreal.^ 

When  he  reached  Quebec,  his  tidings  cheered  for 
a  while  the  anxious  hearts  of  its  tenants ;  but  an  un- 
wonted incident  soon  told  them  how  hollow  was  the 
ground  beneath  their  feet.  Le  Moyne,  accompanied 
by  two  Onondagas  and  several  Hurons  and  Algonquins, 
was  returning  to  Montreal,  when  he  and  his  com- 
panions were  set  upon  by  a  war-party  of  Mohawks. 
The  Hurons  and  Algonquins  were  killed.  One  of 
the  Onondagas  shared  their  fate,  and  the  other,  with 
Le  Moyne  himself,  was  seized  and  bound  fast.  The 
captive  Onondaga,  however,  was  so  loud  in  his 
threats  and  denunciations  that  the  Mohawks  released 
^\  both  him  and  the  Jesuit.^  Here  was  a  foreshadow- 
^  ing  of  civil  war,  —  Mohawk  against  Onondaga, 
Iroquois  against  Iroquois.  The  quarrel  was  patched 
up,  but  fresh  provocations  were  imminent. 

The  Mohawks  took  no  part  in  the  Erie  war,  and 
hence  their  hands  were  free  to  fight  the  French  and 
the  tribes  allied  with  them.  Reckless  of  their 
promises,  they  began  a  series  of  butcheries,  —  fell 
upon  the  French  at  Isle  aux  Oies,  killed  a  lay  brother 
of  the  Jesuits  at  Sillery,  and  attacked  Montreal. 
Here,  being  roughly  handled,  they  came  for  a  time 

1  Journal  du  Pere  Le  Maine,  Relation,  1054,  chaps,  vi.  yii. 

2  Compare  Relation,  1654,  33,  and  Lettre  de  Marie  de  l' Incarnation, 
18  Oct.,  1654. 


1655.]  ONONDAGA  DEPUTATION.  69 

to  their  senses,  and  offered  terms,  promising  to  spare 
the  French,  but  declaring  that  they  would  still  wage 
war  against  the  Hurons  and  Algonquins.  These 
were  allies  whom  the  French  were  pledged  to  protect; 
but  so  helpless  was  the  colony  that  the  insolent  and 
humiliating  proffer  was  accepted,  and  another  peace 
ensued,  as  hollow  as  the  last.  The  indefatigable  Le 
Moyne  was  sent  to  the  Mohawk  towns  to  confirm  it, 
"so  far,"  says  the  chronicle,  "as  it  is  possible  to  con- 
firm a  peace  made  by  infidels  backed  by  heretics."^ 
The  Mohawks  received  him  with  great  rejoicing;  yet 
his  life  was  not  safe  for  a  moment.  A  warrior, 
feigning  madness,  raved  through  the  town  with 
uplifted  hatchet,  howling  for  his  blood;  but  the 
saints  watched  over  him  and  balked  the  machinations 
of  hell.  He  came  off  alive  and  returned  to  Montreal, 
spent  with  famine  and  fatigue. 

Meanwhile  a  deputation  of  eighteen  Onondaga 
chiefs  arrived  at  Quebec.  There  was  a  grand  council. 
The  Onondagas  demanded  a  colony  of  Frenchmen  to 
dwell  among  them.  Lauson,  the  governor,  dared 
neither  to  consent  nor  to  refuse.  A  middle  course 
was  chosen ;  and  two  Jesuits,  Chaumonot  and  Dablon, 
were  sent,  like  Le  Moyne,  partly  to  gain  time,  partly 
to  reconnoitre,  and  partly  to  confirm  the  Onondagas 
in  such  good  intentions  as  they  might  entertain. 
Chaumonot  was  a  veteran  of  the  Huron  mission,  who, 
miraculously  as  he  himself  supposed,  had  acquired  a 

^  Copie  de  Deux  Leitres  envoyees  de  la  Nouvelle  France  au  Pere 
Procureur  des  Missions  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus. 


70  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1655. 

great  fluency  in  the  Huron  tongue,  which  is  closely 
allied  to  that  of  the  Iroquois.  Dablon,  a  new-comer, 
spoke,  as  yet,  no  Indian. 

Their  voyage  up  the  St.  Lawrence  was  enlivened 
by  an  extraordinary  bear-hunt,  and  by  the  antics  of 
one  of  their  Indian  attendants,  who,  having  dreamed 
that  he  had  swallowed  a  frog,  roused  the  whole 
camp  by  the  gymnastics  with  which  he  tried  to  rid 
himself  of  the  intruder.  On  approaching  Onondaga, 
they  were  met  by  a  chief  who  sang  a  song  of  wel- 
come, a  part  of  which  he  seasoned  with  touches 
of  humor,  —  apostrophizing  the  fish  in  the  river 
Onondaga,  naming  each  sort,  great  or  small,  and 
calling  on  them  in  turn  to  come  into  the  nets  of  the 
Frenchmen  and  sacrifice  life  cheerfully  for  their 
behoof.  Hereupon  there  was  much  laughter  among 
the  Indian  auditors.  An  unwonted  cleanliness 
reigned  in  the  town ;  the  streets  had  been  cleared  of 
refuse,  and  the  arched  roofs  of  the  long  houses  of 
bark  were  covered  with  red-skinned  children  staring 
at  the  entry  of  the  "black  robes." 

Crowds  followed  behind,  and  all  was  jubilation. 
The  dignitaries  of  the  tribe  met  them  on  the  way, 
and  greeted  them  with  a  speech  of  welcome.  A  feast 
of  bear's  meat  awaited  them ;  but,  unhappily,  it  was 
Friday,  and  the  fathers  were  forced  to  abstain. 

"  On  Monday,  the  fifteenth  of  November,  at  nine  in 
the  morning,  after  having  secretly  sent  to  Paradise 
a  dying  infant  by  the  waters  of  baptism,  all  the 
elders  and  the  people  having  assembled,  we  opened 


1655.]  REPLY  OF   THE   CHIEFS.  71 

the  council  by  public  prayer."  Thus  writes  Father 
Dablon.  His  colleague,  Chaumonot,  a  Frenchman 
bred  in  Italy,  now  rose,  with  a  long  belt  of  wampum 
in  his  hand,  and  proceeded  to  make  so  effective  a 
display  of  his  rhetorical  gifts  that  the  Indians  were 
lost  in  admiration,  and  their  orators  put  to  the  blush 
by  his  improvements  on  their  own  metaphors.  "If 
he  had  spoken  all  day,"  said  the  delighted  auditors, 
"we  should  not  have  had  enough  of  it."  "The 
Dutch,"  added  others,  "have  neither  brains  nor 
tongues ;  they  never  tell  us  about  paradise  and  hell ; 
on  the  contrary,  they  lead  us  into  bad  ways." 

On  the  next  day  the  chiefs  returned  their  answer. 
The  council  opened  with  a  song  or  chant,  which  was 
divided  into  six  parts,  and  which,  according  to 
Dablon,  was  exceedingly  well  sung.  The  burden 
of  the  fifth  part  was  as  follows :  — 

"Farewell  war!  farewell  tomahawk!  We  have 
been  fools  till  now;  henceforth  we  will  be  brothers, 
—  yes,  we  will  be  brothers." 

Then  came  four  presents,  the  third  of  which 
enraptured  the  fathers.  It  was  a  belt  of  seven  thou- 
sand beads  of  wampum.  "But  this,"  saj'S  Dablon, 
"was  as  nothing  to  the  words  that  accompanied  it." 
"It  is  the  gift  of  the  faith,"  said  the  orator.  "It  is 
to  tell  you  that  we  are  believers ;  it  is  to  beg  you  not 
to  tire  of  instructing  us.  Have  patience,  seeing  that 
we  are  so  dull  in  learning  prayer;  push  it  into  our 
heads  and  our  hearts."  Then  he  led  Chaumonot 
into  the  midst  of  the  assembly,  clasped  him  in  his 


72  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

arms,  tied  the  belt  about  his  waist,  and  protested, 
with  a  suspicious  redundancy  of  words,  that  as  he 
clasped  the  father,  so  would  he  clasp  the  faith. 

What  had  wrought  this  sudden  change  of  heart? 
The  eagerness  of  the  Onondagas  that  the  French 
should  settle  among  them  had,  no  doubt,  a  large 
share  in  it.  For  the  rest,  the  two  Jesuits  saw  abund- 
ant signs  of  the  fierce,  uncertain  nature  of  those 
with  whom  they  were  dealing.  Erie  prisoners  were 
brought  in  and  tortured  before  their  eyes,  —  one  of 
them  being  a  young  stoic  of  about  ten  years,  who 
endured  his  fate  without  a  single  outcry.  Huron 
women  and  children,  taken  in  war  and  adopted  by 
their  captors,  were  killed  on  the  slightest  provoca- 
tion, and  sometimes  from  mere  caprice.  For  several 
days  the  whole  town  was  in  an  uproar  with  the  crazy 
follies  of  the  "dream  feast, "^  and  one  of  the  Fathers 
nearly  lost  his  life  in  this  Indian  Bedlam. 

One  point  was  clear:  the  French  must  make  a 
settlement  at  Onondaga,  and  that  speedily,  or, 
despite  their  professions  of  brotherhood,  the 
Onondagas  would  make  war.  Their  attitude  became 
menacing ;  from  urgency  they  passed  to  threats ;  and 
the  two  priests  felt  that  the  critical  posture  of  affairs 
must  at  once  be  reported  at  Quebec.  But  here  a 
difficulty  arose.  It  was  the  beaver-hunting  season; 
and,  eager  as  were  the  Indians  for  a  French  colony, 
not  one  of  them  would  offer  to  conduct  the  Jesuits 
to  Quebec  in  order  to  fetch  one.  It  was  not  until 
1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  i.  154. 


1656.]  DABLON'S  JOURNEY.  73 

nine  masses  had  been  said  to  Saint  John  the  Baptist, 
that  a  number  of  Indians  consented  to  forego  their 
hunting,  and  escort  Father  Dablon  home.  ^  Chaumonot 
remained  at  Onondaga,  to  watch  Ms  dangerous  hosts 
and  soothe  their  rising  jealousies. 

It  was  the  second  of  March  when  Dablon  began  his 
journey.  His  constitution  must  have  been  of  iron, 
or  he  would  have  succumbed  to  the  appalling  hard- 
ships of  the  way.  It  was  neither  winter  nor  spring. 
The  lakes  and  streams  were  not  yet  open,  but  the 
half-thawed  ice  gave  way  beneath  the  foot.  :,  One  of 
the  Indians  fell  through  and  was  drowned.  Swamp 
and  forest  were  clogged  with  sodden  snow,  and 
ceaseless  rains  drenched  them  as  they  toiled  on, 
knee -deep  in  slush.  Happily,  the  St.  Lawrence  was 
open.  They  found  an  old  wooden  canoe  by  the 
shore,  embarked,  and  reached  Montreal  after  a  jour- 
ney of  four  weeks. 

Dablon  descended  to  Quebec.  There  was  long 
and  anxioiis  counsel  in  the  chambers  of  Fort  St. 
Louis.  The  Jesuits  had  information  that  if  the 
demands  of  the  Onondagas  were  rejected,  they  would 
join  the  Mohawks  to  destroy  Canada.  But  why 
were  they  so  eager  for  a  colony  of  Frenchmen?  Did 
they  want  them  as  hostages,  that  they  might  attack 
the  Hurons  and  Algonquins  without  risk  of  French 
interference ;  or  would  they  massacre  them,  and  then, 
like  tigers  mad  with  the  taste  of  blood,  turn  upon 

1  De  Quen,  Relation,  1656, 35.  Chaumonot,  in  his  Autobiography, 
ascribes  the  miracle  to  the  intercession  of  the  deceased  Bre'beuf . 


74  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

the  helpless  settlements  of  the  St.  Lawrence?  An 
abyss  yawned  on  either  hand.  Lauson,  the  governor, 
was  in  an  agony  of  indecision;  but  at  length  he 
declared  for  the  lesser  and  remoter  peril,  and  gave 
his  voice  for  the  colony.  The  Jesuits  were  of  the 
same  mind,  though  it  was  they,  and  not  he,  who 
must  bear  the  brunt  of  danger.  "  The  blood  of  the 
martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  Church,"  said  one  of  them; 
"  and  if  we  die  by  the  fires  of  the  Iroquois,  we  shall 
have  won  eternal  life  by  snatching  souls  from  the 
iires  of  hell." 

Preparation  was  begun  at  once.  The  expense  fell 
on  the  Jesuits,  and  the  outfit  is  said  to  have  cost 
them  seven  thousand  livres,  —  a  heavy  sum  for 
Canada  at  that  day.  A  pious  gentleman,  Zachary 
Du  Puys,  major  of  the  fort  of  Quebec,  joined  the 
expedition  with  ten  soldiers ;  and  between  thirty  and 
forty  other  Frenchmen  also  enrolled  themselves, 
impelled  by  devotion  or  destitution.     Four  Jesuits, 

—  Le  Mercier,  the  superior,  with  Dablon,  Mdnard, 
and  Frdmin,  —  besides  two  lay  brothers  of  the  order, 
formed,  as  it  were,  the  pivot  of  the  enterprise.  The 
governor  made  them  the  grant  of  a  hundred  square 
leagues  of  land  in  the  heart  of  the  Iroquois  country, 

—  a  preposterous  act,  which,  had  the  Iroquois  known 
it,  would  have  rekindled  the  war;  but  Lauson  had  a 
mania  for  land-grants,  and  was  himself  the  proprietor 
of  vast  domains  which  he  could  have  occupied  only 
at  the  cost  of  his  scalp. 

Embarked  in   two   large   boats   and    followed   by 


1656]  DEPARTURE.  75 

twelve  canoes  filled  with  Hiirons,  Onondagas,  and  a 
few  Senecas  lately  arrived,  they  set  out  on  the  seven- 
teenth of  May  "to  attack  the  demons,"  as  Le  Mercier 
writes,  "in  their  very  stronghold."  With  shouts, 
tears,  and  benedictions,  priests,  soldiers,  and  inhabit- 
ants waved  farewell  from  the  strand.  They  passed 
the  bare  steeps  of  Cape  Diamond  and  the  mission- 
house  nestled  beneath  the  heights  of  Sillery,  and 
vanished  from  the  anxious  eyes  that  watched  the 
last  gleam  of  their  receding  oars.^ 

Meanwhile  three  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  had 
taken  the  war-path,  bent  on  killing  or  kidnapping 
the  Hurons  of  Orleans.  When  they  heard  of  the 
departure  of  the  colonists  for  Onondaga,  their  rage 
was  unbounded;  for  not  only  were  they  full  of  jeal- 
ousy towards  their  Onondaga  confederates,  but  they 
had  hitherto  derived  great  profit  from  the  control 
which  their  local  position  gave  them  over  the  traffic 
between  this  tribe  and  the  Dutch  of  the  Hudson,  — 
upon  whom  the  Onondagas,  in  common  with  all  the 
upper  Iroquois,  had  been  dependent  for  their  guns, 
hatchets,  scalping-knives,  beads,  blankets,  and 
brandy.  These  supplies  would  now  be  furnished  by 
the  French,  and  the  Mohawk  speculators  saw  their 
occupation  gone.  Nevertheless,  they  had  just  made 
peace  with  the  French,  and  for  the  moment  were  not 
quite  in  the  mood  to  break  it.  To  wreak  their  spite, 
they  took  a  middle   course,  —  crouched  in  ambush 

1  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettres,  1656.  Le  Mercier,  Relation, 
1657,  chap.  iv.     Chaulraer,  Nouveau  Monde,  ii.  265,  322,  319. 


76  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

among  the  bushes  at  Point  St.  Croix,  ten  or  twelve 
leagues  above  Quebec,  allowed  the  boats  bearing  the 
French  to  pass  unmolested,  and  fired  a  volley  at  the 
canoes  in  the  rear,  filled  with  Onondagas,  Senecas, 
and  Hurons.  Then  they  fell  upon  them  with  a  yell, 
and,  after  wounding  a  lay  brother  of  the  Jesuits 
who  was  among  them,  bound  and  flogged  such  of 
the  Indians  as  they  could  seize.  The  astonished 
Onondagas  protested  and  threatened ;  whereupon  the 
Mohawks  feigned  great  surprise,  declared  that  they 
had  mistaken  them  for  Hurons,  called  them  brothers, 
and  suffered  the  whole  party  to  escape  without 
further  injury.  ^ 

The  three  hundred  marauders  now  paddled  their 
large  canoes  of  elm-bark  stealthily  down  the  current, 
passed  Quebec  undiscovered  in  the  dark  night  of  the 
nineteenth  of  May,  landed  in  early  morning  on  the 
island  of  Orleans,  and  ambushed  themselves  to  sur- 
prise the  Hurons  as  they  came  to  labor  in  their  corn- 
fields. They  were  tolerably  successful,  —  killed  six, 
and  captured  more  than  eighty,  the  rest  taking  refuge 
in  their  fort,  where  the  Mohawks  dared  not  attack 
them. 

At  noon,  the  French  on  the  rock  of  Quebec  saw 
forty  canoes  approaching  from  the  island  of  Orleans, 
and  defiling,  with  insolent  parade,  in  front  of  the 
town,  all  crowded  with  the  Mohawks  and  their  pris- 
oners, among  whom  were  a  great  number  of  Huron 

1  Compare  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettre  14  Aoui,  1656,  Le  Jeune, 
Relation,  1657,  9. 


1656.]  MOHAWK  INSOLENCE.  77 

girls.  Their  captors,  as  they  passed,  forced  them 
to  sing  and  dance.  The  Hurons  were  the  allies,  or 
rather  the  wards,  of  the  French,  who  were  in  every- 
way pledged  to  protect  them.  Yet  the  cannon  of 
Fort  St.  Louis  were  silent,  and  the  crowd  stood  gap- 
ing in  bewilderment  and  fright.  Had  an  attack  been 
made,  nothing  but  a  complete  success  and  the  capture 
of  many  prisoners  to  serve  as  hostages  could  have 
prevented  the  enraged  Mohawks  from  taking  their 
revenge  on  the  Onondaga  colonists.  The  emergency 
demanded  a  prompt  and  clear-sighted  soldier.  The 
governor,  Lauson,  was  a  gray-haired  civilian,  who, 
however  enterprising  as  a  speculator  in  wild  lands, 
was  in  no  way  matched  to  the  desperate  crisis  of  the 
hour.  Some  of  the  Mohawks  landed  above  and 
below  the  town,  and  plundered  the  houses  from 
which  the  scared  inhabitants  had  fled.  Not  a  soldier 
stirred  and  not  a  gun  was  fired.  The  French,  bullied 
by  a  horde  of  naked  savages,  became  an  object  of 
contempt  to  their  own  allies. 

The  Mohawks  carried  their  prisoners  home,  burned 
six  of  them,  and  adopted  or  rather  enslaved  the 
rest.^ 

Meanwhile  the  Onondaga  colonists  pursued  their 
perilous  way.  At  Montreal  they  exchanged  their 
heavy  boats  for  canoes,  and  resumed  their  journey 
with  a  flotilla  of  twenty  of  these  sylvan  vessels.  A 
few  days  after,  the  Indians  of  the  party  had  the  satis- 
faction of  pillaging  a  small  band  of  Mohawk  hunters, 

^  See  authorities  just  cited,  and  Perrot,  Mceurs  des  Sauvages,  106. 


78  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

in  vicarious  reprisal  for  their  own  wrongs.  On  the 
twenty-sixth  of  June,  as  they  neared  Lake  Ontario, 
they  heard  a  loud  and  lamentable  voice  from  the  edge 
of  the  forest;  whereupon,  having  beaten  their  drum 
to  show  that  they  were  Frenchmen,  they  beheld  a 
spectral  figure,  lean  and  covered  with  scars,  which 
proved  to  be  a  pious  Huron, —  one  Joachim  Ondakout, 
captured  by  the  Mohawks  in  their  descent  on  the 
island  of  Orleans,  five  or  six  weeks  before.  They 
had  carried  liim  to  their  village  and  begun  to  torture 
him ;  after  which  they  tied  him  fast  and  lay  down  to 
sleep,  thinldng  to  resume  their  pleasure  on  the  mor- 
row. His  cuts  and  burns  being  only  on  the  surface, 
he  had  the  good  fortune  to  free  himself  from  his 
bonds,  and,  naked  as  he  was,  to  escape  to  the  woods. 
He  held  his  course  northwestward,  through  regions 
even  now  a  wilderness,  gathered  wild  strawberries  to 
sustain  life,  and  in  fifteen  days  reached  the  St. 
Lawrence,  nearly  dead  with  exhaustion.  The  French- 
men gave  him  food  and  a  canoe,  and  the  living 
skeleton  paddled  with  a  light  heart  for  Quebec. 

The  colonists  themselves  soon  began  to  suffer  from 
hunger.  Their  fishing  failed  on  Lake  Ontario,  and 
they  were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  cran- 
berries of  the  last  year,  gathered  in  the  meadows. 
Of  their  Indians,  all  but  five  deserted  them.  The 
Father  Superior  fell  ill,  and  when  they  reached  the 
mouth  of  the  Oswego  many  of  the  starving  French- 
men had  completely  lost  heart.  Weary  and  faint, 
they  dragged  their  canoes  up  the  rapids,  when  sud- 


1656.]  THE  ONONDAGAS.  79 

denly  they  were  cheered  "by  the  sight  of  a  stranger 
canoe  swiftly  descending  the  current.  The  Onondagas, 
aware  of  their  approach,  had  sent  it  to  meet  them, 
laden  with  Indian  corn  and  fresh  salmon.  Two  more 
canoes  followed,  freighted  like  the  first;  and  now  all 
was  abundance  till  they  reached  their  journey's  end, 
the  Lake  of  Onondaga.  It  lay  before  them  in  the  July 
sun,  a  glittering  mirror,  framed  in  forest  verduTc. 

They  knew  that  Chaumonot  with  a  crowd  of 
Indians  was  awaiting  them  at  a  spot  on  the  margin 
of  the  water,  which  he  and  Dablon  had  chosen  as 
the  site  of  their  settlement.  Landing  on  the  strand, 
they  fired,  to  give  notice  of  their  approach,  five  small 
cannon  which  they  had  brought  in  their  canoes. 
Waves,  woods,  and  hills  resounded  with  the  thunder 
of  their  miniature  artillery.  Then  re-embarking, 
they  advanced  in  order,  four  canoes  abreast,  towards 
the  destined  spot.  In  front  floated  their  banner  of 
white  silk,  embroidered  in  large  letters  with  the 
name  of  Jesus.  Here  were  Du  Puys  and  his  soldiers, 
with  the  picturesque  uniforms  and  quaint  weapons  of 
their  time;  Le  Mercier  and  his  Jesuits  in  robes  of 
black;  hunters  and  bush-rangers;  Indians  painted 
and  feathered  for  a  festal  day.  As  they  neared  the 
place  where  a  spring  bubbling  from  the  hillside  is 
still  known  as  the  "Jesuits'  Well,"  they  saw  the 
edge  of  the  forest  dark  with  the  muster  of  savages 
whose  yells  of  welcome  answered  the  salvo  of  their 
guns.  Happily  for  them,  a  flood  of  summer  rain 
saved  them  from  the   harangues  of   the  Onondaga 


80  THE  JESUITS  AT  ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

orators,  and  forced  white  men  and  red  alike  to  seek 
such  shelter  as  they  could  find.  Their  hosts,  with 
hospitable  intent,  would  fain  have  sung  and  danced 
all  night;  but  the  Frenchmen  pleaded  fatigue,  and 
the  courteous  savages,  squatting  around  their  tents, 
chanted  in  monotonous  tones  to  lull  them  to  sleep. 
In  the  morning  they  woke  refreshed,  sang  Te  Deum, 
reared  an  altar,  and,  with  a  solemn  mass,  took  pos- 
session of  the  country  in  the  name  of  Jesus. ^ 

Three  things,  which  they  saw  or  heard  of  in  their 
new  home,  excited  their  astonishment.  The  first 
was  the  vast  flight  of  wild  pigeons  which  in  spring 
darkened  the  air  around  the  Lake  of  Onondaga ;  the 
second  was  the  salt  springs  of  Saliua;  the  third  was 
the  rattlesnakes,  which  Le  Mercier  describes  with 
excellent  precision,  —  adding  that,  as  he  learns  from 
the  Indians,  their  tails  are  good  for  toothache  and 
their  flesh  for  fever.  These  reptiles,  for  reasons 
best  known  to  themselves,  haunted  the  neighborhood 
of  the  salt-springs,  but  did  not  intrude  their  presence 
into  the  abode  of  the  French. 

On  the  seventeenth  of  July,  Le  Mercier  and  Chau- 
monot,  escorted  by  a  file  of  soldiers,  set  out  for  Onon- 
daga, scarcely  five  leagues  distant.  They  followed 
the  Indian  trail,  under  the  leafy  arches  of  the  woods, 
by  hill  and  hollow,  still  swamp  and  gurgling  brook, 
till  through  the  opening  foliage  they  saw  the  Iroquois 
capital,  compassed  with  cornfields  and  girt  with  its 
rugged  palisade.     As  the  Jesuits,  like  black  spectres, 

1  Le  Mercier,  Relation,  1657,  14. 


1656.]  THE  IROQUOIS  CAPITAL.  81 

issued  from  the  shadows  of  the  forest,  followed  by 
the  plumed  soldiers  with  shouldered  arquebuses,  the 
red-skinned  population  swarmed  out  like  bees,  and 
they  defiled  to  the  town  through  gazing  and  admiring 
throngs.  All  conspired  to  welcome  them.  Feast 
followed  feast  throughout  the  afternoon,  till,  what 
with  harangues  and  songs,  bear's  meat,  beaver-tails, 
and  venison,  beans,  corn,  and  grease,  they  were 
wellnigh  killed  with  kindness.  "  If,  after  this,  they 
murder  us,"  writes  Le  Mercier,  "it  will  be  from 
fickleness,  not  premeditated  treachery."  But  the 
Jesuits,  it  seems,  had  not  sounded  the  depths  of 
Iroquois  dissimulation.  ^ 

There  was  one  exception  to  the  real  or  pretended 
joy.  Some  Mohawks  were  in  the  town,  and  their 
orator  was  insolent  and  sarcastic;  but  the  ready 
tongue  of  Chaumonot  turned  the  laugh  against  him 
and  put  him  to  shame. 

Here  burned  the  council-fire  of  the  Iroquois,  and 
at  this  very  time  the  deputies  of  the  five  tribes  were 
assembling.  The  session  opened  on  the  twenty-fourth. 
In  the  great  council-house,  on  the  earthen  floor  and  the 
broad  platforms,  beneath  the  smoke-begrimed  concave 
of  the  bark  roof,  stood,  sat,  or  squatted  the  wisdom 
and  valor  of  the  confederacy,  —  Mohawks,  Oneidas, 

1  The  Jesuits  were  afterwards  told  by  Hurons,  captive  among 
the  Mohawks  and  the  Onondagas,  that,  from  the  first,  it  was 
intended  to  massacre  the  French  as  soon  as  their  presence  had 
attracted  the  remnant  of  the  Hurons  of  Orleans  into  the  power  of 
the  Onondagas.  Lettre  du  P.  Ragueneau  aic  R.  P.  Provincial,  31 
Aoik,  1658. 

VOL.   I.  —  6 


82  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

Onondagas,  Cayugas,  and  Senecas;  sachems,  coun- 
sellors, orators,  warriors  fresh  from  Erie  victories; 
tall,  stalwart  figures,  limbed  like  Grecian  statues. 

The  pressing  business  of  the  council  over,  it  was 
Chaumonot's  turn  to  speak.  But,  first,  all  the 
Frenchmen,  kneeling  in  a  row,  with  clasped  hands, 
sang  the  Veni  Creator,  amid  the  silent  admiration 
of  the  auditors.  Then  Chaumonot  rose,  with  an 
immense  wampum-belt  in  his  hand,  and  said: 

"It  is  not  trade  that  brings  us  here.  Do  you 
think  that  your  beaver-skins  can  pay  us  for  all  our 
toils  and  dangers?  Keep  them,  if  you  like;  or,  if 
any  fall  into  our  hands,  we  shall  use  them  only  for 
your  service.  We  seek  not  the  things  that  perish. 
It  is  for  the  Faith  that  we  have  left  our  homes  to 
live  in  your  hovels  of  bark,  and  eat  food  which  the 
beasts  of  our  country  would  scarcely  touch.  We  are 
the  messengers  whom  God  has  sent  to  tell  you  that 
his  Son  became  a  man  for  the  love  of  you ;  that  this 
man,  the  Son  of  God,  is  the  prince  and  master  of 
men ;  that  he  has  prepared  in  heaven  eternal  joys  for 
those  who  obey  him,  and  kindled  the  fires  of  hell  for 
those  who  will  not  receive  his  word.  If  you  reject 
it,  whoever  you  are,  —  Onondaga,  Seneca,  Mohawk, 
Cayuga,  or  Oneida,  —  know  that  Jesus  Christ,  who 
inspires  my  heart  and  my  voice,  will  plunge  you  one 
day  into  hell.  Avert  this  ruin;  be  not  the  authors 
of  your  own  destruction ;  accept  the  truth ;  listen  to 
the  voice  of  the  Omnipotent." 

Such,  in  brief,  was  the  pith  of  the  father's  exhorta- 


1656.]  THE  NEW  MISSION.  83 

tion.  As  he  spoke  Indian  like  a  native,  and  as  his 
voice  and  gestures  answered  to  his  words,  we  may- 
believe  what  Le  Mercier  tells  us,  that  his  hearers 
listened  with  mingled  wonder,  admiration,  and  terror. 
The  work  was  well  begun.  The  Jesuits  struck  while 
the  iron  was  hot ;  built  a  small  chapel  for  the  mass, 
installed  themselves  in  the  town,  and  preached  and 
catechised  from  morning  till  night. 

The  Frenchmen  at  the  lake  were  not  idle.  The 
chosen  site  of  their  settlement  was  the  crown  of  a 
hill  commanding  a  broad  view  of  waters  and  forests. 
The  axemen  fell  to  their  work,  and  a  ghastly  wound 
soon  gaped  in  the  green  bosom  of  the  woodland. 
Here,  among  the  stumps  and  prostrate  trees  of  the 
unsightly  clearing,  the  blacksmith  built  his  forge, 
saw  and  hammer  plied  their  trade;  palisades  were 
shaped  and  beams  squared,  in  spite  of  heat,  mosqui- 
toes, and  fever.  At  one  time  twenty  men  were  ill, 
and  lay  gasping  under  a  wretched  shed  of  bark ;  but 
they  all  recovered,  and  the  work  went  on,  till  at 
length  a  capacious  house,  large  enough  to  hold  the 
whole  colony,  rose  above  the  ruin  of  the  forest.  A 
palisade  was  set  around  it,  and  the  Mission  of  Saint 
Mary  of  Gannentaa  ^  was  begun. 

France  and  the  Faith  were  intrenched  on  the  Lake 
of  Onondaga.  How  long  would  they  remain  there  ? 
The  future  alone  could  tell.     The  mission,  it  must 

1  Gannentaa  or  Ganuntaah  is  still  the  Iroquois  name  for  Lake 
Onondaga.  According  to  Morgan,  it  means  "  Material  for  Council- 
Fire." 


84  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1656. 

not  be  forgotten,  had  a  double  scope,  —  half  ecclesi- 
astical, half  political.  The  Jesuits  had  essayed  a 
fearful  task,  —  to  convert  the  Iroquois  to  God  and  to 
the  King,  thwart  the  Dutch  heretics  of  the  Hudson, 
save  souls  from  hell,  avert  ruin  from  Canada,  and 
thus  raise  their  order  to  a  place  of  honor  and  influ- 
ence both  hard-earned  and  well-earned.  The  mis- 
sion at  Lake  Onondaga  was  but  a  base  of  operations. 
Long  before  they  were  lodged  and  fortified  here, 
Chaumonot  and  Mdnard  set  out  for  the  Cayugas, 
whence  the  former  proceeded  to  the  Senecas,  the 
most  numerous  and  powerful  of  the  five  confederate 
nations ;  and  in  the  following  spring  another  mission 
was  begun  among  the  Oneidas.  Their  reception  was 
not  unfriendly ;  but  such  was  the  reticence  and  dis- 
simulation of  these  inscrutable  savages,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  foretell  results.  The  women  proved, 
as  might  be  expected,  far  more  impressible  than  the 
men;  and  in  them  the  fathers  placed  great  hope, 
since  in  this,  the  most  savage  people  of  the  continent, 
women  held  a  degree  of  political  influence  never  per- 
haps equalled  in  any  civilized  nation.^ 

1  Women,  amonfj  the  Iroquois,  had  a  council  of  their  own, 
which,  according  to  Lafitau,  who  knew  tliis  people  well,  had  the 
initiative  in  discussion,  subjects  presented  hy  them  being  settled  in 
tiie  council  of  chiefs  and  elders.  In  this  latter  council  the  women 
had  an  orator,  often  of  their  own  sex,  to  represent  them.  The 
matrons  had  a  leading  voice  in  determining  the  succession  of 
chiefs.  There  were  also  female  chiefs,  one  of  whom,  with  her 
attendants,  came  to  Quebec  with  an  embassy  in  1655  (Marie  de 
ITncarnation).    In  the  torture  of  prisoners,  great  deference  was 


1657.]  JESUIT   COURAGE.  85 

But  while  infants  were  baptized  and  squaws  con- 
verted, the  crosses  of  the  mission  were  many  and 
great.  The  devil  bestirred  himself  with  more  than 
his  ordinary  activity;  "for,"  as  one  of  the  fathers 
writes,  "when  in  sundry  nations  of  the  earth  men 
are  rising  up  in  strife  against  us  [the  Jesuits],  then 
how  much  more  the  demons,  on  whom  we  continually 
wage  war!"  It  was  these  infernal  sprites,  as  the 
priests  believed,  who  engendered  suspicions  and 
calumnies  in  the  dark  and  superstitious  minds  of  the 
Iroquois,  and  prompted  them  in  dreams  to  destroy 
the  apostles  of  the  Faith.  Whether  the  foe  was  of 
earth  or  hell,  the  Jesuits  were  like  those  who  tread 
the  lava-crust  that  palpitates  mth  the  throes  of  the 
coming  eruption,  while  the  molten  death  beneath 
their  feet  glares  white-hot  through  a  thousand 
crevices.  Yet,  with  a  sublime  enthusiasm  and  a 
glorious  constancy,  they  toiled  and  they  hoped, 
though  the  skies  around  were  black  with  portent. 

In  the  year  in  which  the  colony  at  Onondaga  was 
begun,  the  Mohawks  murdered  the  Jesuit  Garreau 
on  his  way  up  the  Ottawa.  In  the  following  spring, 
a  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  came  to  Quebec  to  carry 

paid  to  the  judgment  of  the  women,  who,  says   Cliamplain,  were 
thought  more  skilful  and  subtle  than  the  men. 

The  learned  Lafitau,  whose  book  appeared  in  1724,  dwells  at 
length  on  the  resemblance  of  the  Iroquois  to  the  ancient  Lycians, 
among  whom,  according  to  Grecian  writers,  women  were  in  the 
ascendant.  "  Gynecocracy,  or  the  rule  of  women,"  continues 
Lafitau,  "which  was  the  foundation  of  the  Lycian  government, 
was  probably  common  in  early  times  to  nearly  all  the  barbarous 
people  of  Greece."    Maurs  des  Sauvivjrs,  i.  460  (ed.  in  4to). 


86  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1657. 

more  of  the  Huroiis  into  slavery,  —  though  the 
remnant  of  that  unhappy  people,  since  the  catastrophe 
of  the  last  year,  had  sought  safety  in  a  palisaded 
camp  within  the  limits  of  the  French  town,  and 
immediately  under  the  ramparts  of  Fort  St.  Louis. 
Here,  one  might  think,  they  would  have  been  safe; 
but  Charny,  son  and  successor  of  Lauson,  seems  to 
have  been  even  more  imbecile  than  his  father,  and 
listened  meekly  to  the  threats  of  the  insolent 
strangers  who  told  him  that  unless  he  abandoned 
the  Hurons  to  their  mercy,  both  they  and  the  French 
should  feel  the  weight  of  Mohawk  tomahawks. 
They  demanded,  further,  that  the  French  should 
give  them  boats  to  carry  their  prisoners;  but,  as 
there  were  none  at  hand,  this  last  humiliation  was 
spared.  The  Mohawks  were  forced  to  make  canoes, 
in  which  they  carried  off  as  many  as  possible  of  their 
victims. 

When  the  Onondagas  learned  this  last  exploit  of 
their  rivals,  their  jealousy  knew  no  bounds,  and  a 
troop  of  them  descended  to  Quebec  to  claim  their 
share  in  the  human  plunder.  Deserted  by  the 
French,  the  despairing  Hurons  abandoned  themselves 
to  their  fate;  and  about  fifty  of  those  whom  the 
Mohawks  had  left  obeyed  the  behest  of  their  tyrants, 
and  embarked  for  Onondaga.  They  reached  Montreal 
in  July,  and  thence  proceeded  towards  their  destina- 
tion in  company  with  the  Onondaga  warriors.  The 
Jesuit  Ragueneau,  bound  also  for  Onondaga,  joined 
them.     Five  leagues   al)ove   Montreal,   the   warriors 


16570  ONONDAGA   TREACHERY.  87 

left  him  behind;  but  he  found  an  old  canoe  on  the 
bank,  in  which,  after  abandoning  most  of  his  bag- 
gage, he  contrived  to  follow  with  two  or  three 
Frenchmen  who  were  with  him.  There  was  a  rumor 
that  a  hundred  Mohawk  warriors  were  lying  in 
wait  among  the  Thousand  Islands  to  plunder  the 
Onondagas  of  their  Huron  prisoners.  It  proved  a 
false  report.  A  speedier  catastrophe  awaited  these 
unfortunates. 

Towards  evening  on  the  third  of  August,  after  the 
party  had  landed  to  encamp,  an  Onondaga  chief 
made  advances  to  a  Christian  Huron  girl,  as  he  had 
already  done  at  every  encampment  since  leaving 
Montreal.  Being  repulsed  for  the  fourth  time,  he 
split  her  head  with  his  tomahawk.  It  was  the 
beginning  of  a  massacre.  The  Onondagas  rose  upon 
their  prisoners,  killed  seven  men,  all  Christians, 
before  the  eyes  of  the  horrified  Jesuit,  and  plundered 
the  rest  of  all  they  had.  When  Ragueneau  pro- 
tested, they  told  him  with  insolent  mockery  that 
they  were  acting  by  direction  of  the  governor  and 
the  superior  of  the  Jesuits.  The  priest  himself  was 
secretly  warned  that  he  was  to  be  killed  during  the 
night;  and  he  was  surprised  in  the  morning  to  find 
himself  alive.  ^  On  reaching  Onondaga,  some  of  the 
Christian  captives  were  burned,  including  several 
women  and   their  infant  children. ^ 

The  confederacy  was  a  hornet's  nest,  buzzing  with 

1  Lettre  de  Ragueneau  au  R.  P.  Provincial,  d  Aout,  1657  {ReL,  1657). 

2  Ibid.,  21  Aout,  1658  {Rel,  1658). 


88  THE  JESUITS  AT   ONONDAGA.  [1657. 

preparation,  and  fast  pouring  out  its  wrathful  swarms. 
The  indomitable  Le  Moyne  had  gone  again  to  the 
Mohawks,  whence  he  wrote  that  two  hundred  of 
them  had  taken  the  war-path  against  the  Algonquins 
of  Canada ;  and,  a  little  later,  that  all  were  gone  but 
women,  children,  and  old  men.  A  great  war-party 
of  twelve  hundred  Iroquois  from  all  the  five  cantons 
was  to  advance  into  Canada  in  the  direction  of  the 
Ottawa.  The  settlements  on  the  St.  Lawrence  were 
infested  with  prowling  warriors,  who  killed  the 
Indian  allies  of  the  French,  and  plundered  the 
French  themselves,  whom  they  treated  with  an  insuf- 
ferable msolence;  for  they  felt  themselves  masters 
uj.  the  s-  tuation,  and  knew  that  the  Onondaga  colony 
was  in  their  power.  Near  Montreal  they  killed 
three  Frenchmen.  "They  approach  like  foxes," 
writes  a  Jesuit,  "attack  like  lions,  and  disappear 
like  birds."  Charny,  fortunately,  had  resigned  the 
government  in  despair  in  order  to  turn  priest,  and 
the  brave  soldier  d' Ailleboust  had  taken  his  place.  He 
caused  twelve  of  the  Iroquois  to  be  seized  and  held 
as  hostages.  This  seemed  to  increase  their  fury. 
An  embassy  came  to  Quebec  and  demanded  the 
release  of  the  hostages,  but  were  met  with  a  sharp 
reproof  and  a  flat  refusal. 

At  the  mission  on  Lake  Onondaga  the  crisis  was 
drawing  near.  The  unbridled  young  warriors,  whose 
capricious  lawlessness  often  set  at  naught  the  moni- 
tions of  their  crafty  elders,  killed  wantonly  at 
various  times  thirteen  Christian  Hurons,  captives  at 


1658.]  FRIGHTFUL  POSITION.  89 

Onondaga.  Ominous  reports  reached  the  ears  of  the 
colonists.  They  heard  of  a  secret  council  at  which 
their  death  was  decreed.  Again,  they  heard  that 
they  were  to  be  surprised  and  captured,  that  the 
Iroquois  in  force  were  then  to  descend  upon  Canada, 
lay  waste  the  outlying  settlements,  and  torture  them, 
the  colonists,  in  sight  of  their  countrymen,  by  which 
they  hoped  to  extort  what  terms  they  pleased.  At 
length  a  dying  Onondaga,  recently  converted  and 
baptized,  confirmed  the  rumors,  and  revealed  the 
whole  plot. 

It  was  to  take  effect  before  the  spring  opened ;  but 
the  hostages  in  the  hands  of  d'Ailleboust  embarrassed 
the  conspirators  and  caused  delay.     Messeng<  rs  were 
sent  in  haste  to  call  in  the  priests  from  the  detached 
missions ;  and  all  the  colonists,  fifty-three  in  number, 
were  soon   gathered  at  their  fortified  house  on  the 
lake.     Their   situation  was    frightful.     Fate    hung 
over  them  by  a  hair,  and   escape  seemed   hopeless. 
Of  Du  Puys's  ten  soldiers,  nine  wished  to  desert; 
but  the  attempt  would  have  been  fatal.     A  throng 
of  Onondaga  warriors  were  day  and  night  on  the 
watch,  bivouacked  around  the  house.     Some  of  them 
had  built  their  huts  of  bark  before  the  gate,   and 
here,  with  calm,  impassive  faces,  they  lounged  and 
smoked  their  pipes;  or,  wrapped  in  their   blankets, 
strolled  about  the  yards  and  outhouses,  attentive  to 
all  that  passed.     Their  behavior  was  very  friendly. 
The   Jesuits,    themselves    adepts    in    dissimulation, 
were  amazed  at  the  depth  of  their  duplicity ;  for  the 


90  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1658. 

conviction  had  been  forced  upon  them  that  some  of 
the  chiefs  had  nursed  their  treachery  from  the  first. 
In  this  extremity  Du  Puys  and  the  Jesuits  showed 
an  admirable  coolness,  and  among  them  devised  a 
plan  of  escape,  critical  and  full  of  doubt,  but  not 
devoid  of  hope. 

First,  they  must  provide  means  of  transportation ; 
next,  they  must  contrive  to  use  them  undiscovered. 
They  had  eight  canoes,  all  of  which  combined  would 
not  hold  half  their  company.  Over  the  mission-house 
was  a  large  loft  or  garret,  and  here  the  carpenters 
were  secretly  set  at  work  to  construct  two  large  and 
light  flat-boats,  each  capable  of  carrying  fifteen  men. 
The  task  was  soon  finished.  The  most  difficult  part 
of  their  plan  remained. 

There  was  a  beastly  superstition  prevalent  among 
the  Hurons,  the  Iroquois,  and  other  tribes.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  "medicine"  or  mystic  feast,  in  which  it 
was  essential  that  the  guests  should  devour  every- 
thing set  before  them,  however  inordinate  in  quantity, 
unless  absolved  from  duty  by  the  person  in  whose 
behalf  the  solemnity  was  ordained,  —  he,  on  his  part, 
taking  no  share  in  the  banquet.  So  grave  was  the 
obligation,  and  so  strenuously  did  the  guests  fulfil  it, 
that  even  their  ostrich  digestion  was  sometimes 
ruined  past  redemption  by  the  excess  of  this  benevo- 
lent gluttony.  These  festins  a  manger  tout  had  been 
frequently  denounced  as  diabolical  by  the  Jesuits, 
during  their  mission  among  the  Hurons;  but  now, 
with  a  pliancy  of  conscience  as  excusable  in  this  case 


1658.]  THE  MEDICINE  FEAST.  91 

as  in  any  other,  they  resolved  to  set  aside  their 
scruples,  although,  judged  from  their  point  of  view, 
they  were  exceedingly  well  founded. 

Among  the  French  was  a  young  man  who  had 
been  adopted  by  an  Iroquois  chief,  and  who  spoke 
the  language  fluently.  He  now  told  his  Indian 
father  that  it  had  been  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream 
that  he  would  soon  die  unless  the  spirits  were 
appeased  by  one  of  these  magic  feasts.  Dreams  were 
the  oracles  of  the  Iroquois,  and  woe  to  those  who 
slighted  them.  A  day  was  named  for  the  sacred 
festivity.  The  fathers  killed  their  hogs  to  meet  the 
occasion,  and,  that  nothing  might  be  wanting,  they 
ransacked  their  stores  for  all  that  might  give  piquancy 
to  the  entertainment.  It  took  place  in  the  evening  of 
the  twentieth  of  March,  apparently  in  a  large  enclosure 
outside  the  palisade  surrounding  the  mission-house. 
Here,  while  blazing  fires  or  glaring  pine-knots  shed 
their  glow  on  the  wild  assemblage,  Frenchmen  and 
Iroquois  joined  in  the  dance,  or  vied  with  each  other 
in  games  of  agility  and  skill.  The  politic  fathers 
offered  prizes  to  the  winners,  and  the  Indians  entered 
with  zest  into  the  sport,  the  better,  perhaps,  to  hide 
their  treachery  and  hoodwink  their  intended  victims ; 
for  they  little  suspected  that  a  subtlety,  deeper  this 
time  than  their  own,  was  at  work  to  countermine 
them.  Here  too  were  the  French  musicians,  and 
drum,  trumpet,  and  cymbal  lent  their  clangor  to  the 
din  of  shouts  and  laughter.  Thus  the  evening  wore 
on,  till  at  length  the  serious  labors  of  the  feast  began. 


92  THE  JESUITS   AT  ONONDAGA.  [1658. 

The  kettles  were  brought  in,  and  their  steaming 
contents  ladled  into  the  wooden  bowls  which  each 
provident  guest  had  brought  with  him.  Seated 
gravely  in  a  ring,  they  fell  to  their  work.  It  was  a 
point  of  high  conscience  not  to  flinch  from  duty  on 
these  solemn  occasions ;  and  though  they  might  burn 
the  young  man  to-morrow,  they  would  gorge  them- 
selves like  vultures  in  his  behoof  to-day. 

Meantime,  while  the  musicians  strained  their  lungs 
and  their  arms  to  drown  all  other  sounds,  a  band  of 
anxious  Frenchmen,  in  the  darkness  of  the  cloudy 
night,  with  cautious  tread  and  bated  breath,  carried 
the  boats  from  the  rear  of  the  mission-house  down  to 
the  border  of  the  lake.  It  was  near  eleven  o'clock. 
The  miserable  guests  were  choking  with  repletion. 
They  prayed  the  young  Frenchman  to  dispense  them 
from  further  surfeit.  "Will  you  suffer  me  to  die?" 
he  asked,  in  piteous  tones.  They  bent  to  their  task 
again;  but  Nature  soon  reached  her  utmost  limit, 
and  they  sat  helpless  as  a  conventicle  of  gorged 
turkey-buzzards,  without  the  power  possessed  by 
those  unseemly  birds  to  rid  themselves  of  the  burden. 
"That  will  do,"  said  the  young  man;  "you  have 
eaten  enough :  my  life  is  saved.  Now  you  can  sleep 
till  we  come  in  the  morning  to  waken  you  for 
prayers."  1  And  one  of  his  companions  played  soft 
airs  on  a  violin  to  lull  them  to  repose.  Soon  all  were 
asleep,  or  in  a  lethargy  akin  to  sleep.  The  few 
remaining   Frenchmen    now   silently   withdrew   and 

^  Lettre  de  Marie  de  I' Incarnation  a  son  Jils,  4  Oct.,  1058. 


1658.]         PERPLEXITY  OF  THE  IROQUOIS.  93 

cautiously  descended  to  the  shore,  where  their  com- 
rades, already  embarked,  lay  on  their  oars  anxiously 
awaiting  them.  Snow  was  falling  fast  as  they  pushed 
out  upon  the  murky  waters.  The  ice  of  the  winter 
had  broken  up,  but  recent  frosts  had  glazed  the  sur- 
face with  a  thin  crust.  The  two  boats  led  the  way, 
and  the  canoes  followed  in  their  wake,  while  men  in 
the  bows  of  the  foremost  boat  broke  the  ice  with 
clubs  as  they  advanced.  They  reached  the  outlet 
and  rowed  swiftly  down  the  dark  current  of  the 
Oswego.  When  day  broke.  Lake  Onondaga  was  far 
behind,  and  around  them  was  the  leafless,  lifeless 
forest. 

When  the  Indians  woke  in  the  morning,  dull  and 
stupefied  from  their  nightmare  slumbers,  they  were 
astonished  at  the  silence  that  reigned  in  the  mission- 
house.  They  looked  through  the  palisade.  Nothing 
was  stirring  but  a  bevy  of  hens  clucking  and  scratch- 
ing in  the  snow,  and  one  or  two  dogs  imprisoned  in 
the  house  and  barking  to  be  set  free.  The  Indians 
waited  for  some  time,  then  climbed  the  palisade, 
burst  in  the  doors,  and  found  the  house  empty. 
Their  amazement  was  unbounded.  How,  without 
canoes,  could  the  French  have  escaped  by  water? 
And  how  else  could  they  escape  ?  The  snow  which 
had  fallen  during  the  night  completely  hid  their 
footsteps.  A  superstitious  awe  seized  the  Iroquois. 
They  thought  that  the  "  black-robes  "  and  their  flock 
had  flown  off  through  the  air. 

Meanwhile  the  fugitives  pushed  their  flight  with 


94  THE  JESUITS   AT   ONONDAGA.  [1658. 

the  energy  of  terror,  passed  in  safety  the  rapids  of  the 
Oswego,  crossed  Lake  Ontario,  and  descended  the 
St.  Lawrence  with  the  loss  of  three  men  drowned 
in  the  rapids.  On  the  third  of  April  they  reached 
Montreal,  and  on  the  twenty-third  arrived  at  Quebec. 
They  had  saved  their  lives ;  but  the  mission  of  Onon- 
daga was  a  miserable  failure.^ 

1  On  the  Onondaga  mission,  the  authorities  are  Marie  de 
rincarnation,  Lettres  Historiques,  and  Relations  des  J€suites,  1657 
and  1658,  where  the  story  is  told  at  length,  accompanied  with 
several  interesting  letters  and  journals.  Chaumonot,  in  his  Auto- 
biographie,  speaks  only  of  the  Seneca  mission,  and  refers  to  the 
Relations  for  the  rest.  Dollier  de  Casson,  in  his  Histoire  du  Mon- 
treal, mentions  the  arrival  of  the  fugitives  at  that  place,  the  sight 
of  which,  he  adds  complacently,  cured  them  of  their  fright.  The 
Journal  des  Sup^rieurs  des  Jesuites  chronicles  with  its  usual  brevity 
the  ruin  of  the  mission  and  the  return  of  the  party  to  Quebec. 

The  contemporary  Jesuits,  in  their  account,  say  nothing  of  the 
superstitious  character  of  the  feast.  It  is  Marie  de  ITncarnation 
who  lets  out  the  secret.  The  later  Jesuit  Charlevoix,  much  to  his 
credit,  repeats  the  story  without  reserve. 

Since  the  above  chapter  was  written,  the  remarkable  narratives 
of  Pierre  Esprit  Radisson  have  been  rescued  from  the  obscurity 
where  they  have  lain  for  more  than  two  centuries.  Radisson,  a 
native  of  St.  Malo,  was  a  member  of  the  colony  at  Onondaga ;  but 
having  passed  into  the  service  of  England,  he  wrote  in  a  language 
which,  for  want  of  a  fitter  name,  may  be  called  English.  He  does 
not  say  that  the  feast  was  of  the  kind  known  &8festin  d  manger  tout, 
though  he  asserts  that  one  of  the  priests  pretended  to  have  broken 
his  arm,  and  that  the  Indians  believed  that  the  "  feasting  was  to  be 
done  for  the  safe  recovery  of  the  father's  health."  Like  the  other 
writers,  he  says  tliat  tlie  feasters  gorged  themselves  like  wolves  and 
bfcanie  completely  helpless,  "  making  strange  kinds  of  faces  that 
turned  their  eyes  up  and  downe,"  till,  when  almost  bursting,  they 
were  forced  to  cry  Skenon,  which  according  to  Radisson  means 
"  enough."  Radisson  adds  that  it  was  proposed  that  the  French, 
"  being  three  and  fifty  in  number,  while  the  Iroquois  were 
but  100  beasts  not  able  to  budge,"  should  fall  upon  the  impotent 


1658.]  STATEMENT  OF  ALLET.  95 

savages  and  kill  them  all,  but  that  the  Jesuits  would  not  consent. 
His  account  of  the  embarkation  and  escape  of  the  colonists  agrees 
with  that  of  the  other  writers.  See  Second  Voyage  made  in  the 
Upper  Country  of  the  Iroquoits,  in  Publications  of  the  Prince  Society, 
1886. 

The  Sulpitian  Allet,  in  the  Morale  Pratique  des  Jesuites,  says 
that  the  French  placed  effigies  of  soldiers  in  the  fort  to  deceive  the 
Indians. 


CHAPTER   V. 

1642-1661. 

THE  HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL. 

DAOVERSlilRE.  —  MaNCE    AND    BOUEGEOTS.  —  MiRACLE.  —  A   P1OU8 

Defaulter.  —  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian.  —  Montreal  in  1669. — 
The  Hospital  Nuns.  —  The  Nuns  and  the  Iroquois.  —  More 
Miracles.  —  The  Murdered  Priests. — Brigeac  and  Closse. 
—  Soldiers  of  the  Holt  Family. 

On  the  second  of  July,  1659,  the  ship  "  St.  Andrd  " 
lay  in  the  harbor  of  Rochelle,  crowded  with  passengers 
for  Canada.  She  had  served  two  years  as  a  hospital 
for  marines,  and  was  infected  with  a  contagious 
fever.  Including  the  crew,  some  two  hundred  persons 
were  on  board,  more  than  half  of  whom  were  bound 
for  Montreal.  Most  of  these  were  sturdy  laborers, 
artisans,  peasants,  and  soldiers,  together  with  a  troop 
of  young  women,  their  present  or  future  partners ;  a 
portion  of  the  comjjany  set  down  on  the  old  record 
as  " sixty  virtuous  men  and  thirty-two  pious  girls." 
There  were  two  priests  also,  Vignal  and  Le  Maitre, 
both  destined  to  a  speedy  death  at  the  hands  of  the 
Iroquois.  But  the  most  conspicuous  among  these 
passengers  for  Montreal  were  two  groups  of  women 
in  the  habit  of  nuns,  under  the  direction  of  Marguerite 


Marguerite  de  Bourgeoys. 


iHi.jSjt  hv  ZueU   fir,.,.:,  s- 


1659.]  BOURGEOYS   AND   MANCE.  97 

Bourgeoys  and  Jeanne  Mance.  Marguerite  Bourgeoys, 
whose  kind,  womanly  face  bespoke  her  fitness  for  the 
task,  was  foundress  of  the  school  for  female  children 
at  Montreal;  her  companion,  a  tall,  austere  figure, 
worn  with  suffering  and  care,  was  directress  of  the 
hospital.  Both  had  returned  to  France  for  aid,  and 
were  now  on  their  way  back,  each  with  three  recruits, 
—  three  being  the  mystic  number,  as  a  type  of  the 
Holy  Family,  to  whose  worship  they  were  especially 
devoted. 

Amid  the  bustle  of  departure,  the  shouts  of  sailors, 
the  rattling  of  cordage,  the  flapping  of  sails,  the 
tears  and  the  embracings,  an  elderly  man,  with  heavy 
plebeian  features,  sallow  with  disease,  and  in  a  sober, 
half-clerical  dress,  approached  Mademoiselle  Mance 
and  her  three  nuns,  and,  turning  his  eyes  to  heaven, 
spread  his  hands  over  them  in  benediction.  It  was 
Le  Royer  de  la  Dauversiere,  founder  of  the  sister- 
hood of  St.  Joseph,  to  which  the  three  nuns  belonged. 
"Now,  O  Lord,"  he  exclaimed,  with  the  look  of  one 
whose  mission  on  earth  is  fulfilled,  "  permit  thou  thy 
servant  to  depart  in  peace!  " 

Sister  Maillet,  who  had  charge  of  the  meagre 
treasury  of  the  community,  thought  that  something 
more  than  a  blessing  was  due  from  him,  and  asked 
where  she  should  apply  for  payment  of  the  interest 
of  the  twenty  thousand  livres  which  Mademoiselle 
Mance  had  placed  in  his  hands  for  investment. 
Dauversiere  changed  countenance,  and  replied  with 
a  troubled  voice:  "My  daughter,   God  will  provide 

VOL.  I.  —  7 


98  THE   HOLY  WARS   OF   MONTREAL.     [1642-57. 

for  you.  Place  your  trust  iu  Him."  ^  He  was  bank- 
rupt, and  had  used  the  money  of  the  sisterhood  to 
pay  a  debt  of  his  own,  leaving  the  nuns  penniless. 

I  have  related  in  another  place  ^  how  an  association 
of  devotees,  inspired,  as  they  supposed,  from  heaven, 
had  undertaken  to  found  a  religious  colony  at 
Montreal  in  honor  of  the  Holy  Family.  The  essen- 
tials of  the  proposed  establishment  were  to  be  a  semi- 
nary of  priests  dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  a  hospital  to 
Saint  Joseph,  and  a  school  to  the  Infant  Jesus ;  while 
a  settlement  was  to  be  formed  around  them  simply 
for  their  defence  and  maintenance.  This  pious  pur- 
pose had  in  part  been  accomplished.  It  was  seven- 
teen years  since  Mademoiselle  Mance  had  begun 
her  labors  in  honor  of  Saint  Joseph.  Marguerite 
Bourgeoys  had  entered  upon  hers  more  recently ;  yet 
even  then  the  attempt  was  premature,  for  she  found 
no  white  children  to  teach.  In  time,  however,  this 
want  was  supplied,  and  she  opened  her  school  in  a 
stable,  which  answered  to  the  stable  of  Bethlehem, 
lodging  with  her  pupils  in  the  loft,  and  instructing 
them  in  Roman  Catholic  Christianity,  with  such 
rudiments  of  mundane  knowledge  as  she  and  her 
advisers  thought  fit  to  impart. 

Mademoiselle  Mance  found  no  lack  of  hospital 
work,  for  blood  and  blows  were  rife  at  Montreal, 
where  the  woods  were  full  of  Iroquois,  and   not  a 

1  Faillon,  Vie  de  M'lle  Manre,  i.  172.    This  volume  is  illustrated 
with  a  portrait  of  Dauversiere. 
*  The  Jesuits  in  Nortli  America, 


Le  Royer  de  la  Daiiversiere. 


1657-58.]  A   WONDERFUL   EVENT.  99 

moment  was  without  its  peril.  Though  years  began 
to  tell  upon  her,  she  toiled  patiently  at  her  dreary 
task,  till,  in  the  winter  of  1657,  she  fell  on  the  ice 
of  the  St.  Lawrence,  broke  her  right  arm,  and  dis- 
located the  wrist.  Bouchard,  the  surgeon  of  Montreal, 
set  the  broken  bones,  but  did  not  discover  the  dis- 
location. The  arm  in  consequence  became  totally 
useless,  and  her  health  wasted  away  under  incessant 
and  violent  pain.  Maisonneuve,  the  civil  and  mili- 
tary chief  of  the  settlement,  advised  her  to  go  to 
France  for  assistance  in  the  work  to  which  she  was 
no  longer  equal;  and  Marguerite  Bourgeoys,  whose 
pupils,  white  and  red,  had  greatly  multiplied,  resolved 
to  go  with  her  for  a  similar  object.  They  set  out 
in  September,  1658,  landed  at  Rochelle,  and  went 
thence  to  Paris.  Here  they  repaired  to  the  seminary 
of  St.  Sulpice;  for  the  priests  of  this  community 
were  joined  with  them  in  the  work  at  Montreal,  of 
which  they  were  afterwards  to  become  the  feudal 
proprietors. 

Now  ensued  a  wonderful  event,  if  we  may  trust 
the  evidence  of  sundry  devout  persons.  Olier,  the 
founder  of  St.  Sulpice,  had  lately  died,  and  the  two 
pilgrims  would  fain  pay  their  homage  to  his  heart, 
which  the  priests  of  his  community  kept  as  a  precious 
relic,  enclosed  in  a  leaden  box.  The  box  was 
brought,  when  the  thought  inspired  Mademoiselle 
Mance  to  try  its  miraculous  efficacy  and  invoke  the 
intercession  of  the  departed  founder.  She  did  so, 
touching  her  disabled  arm  gently  with  the   leaden 


100        THE  HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.     [1658-59. 

casket.  Instantly  a  grateful  warmth  pervaded  the 
shrivelled  limb,  and  from  that  hour  its  use  was 
restored.  It  is  true  that  the  Jesuits  ventured  to 
doubt  the  Sulpitian  miracle,  and  even  to  ridicule  it ; 
but  the  Sulpitians  will  show  to  this  day  the  attesta- 
tion of  Mademoiselle  Mance  herself,  written  with  the 
fingers  once  paralyzed  and  powerless.^  Neverthe- 
less, the  cure  was  not  so  thorough  as  to  permit  her 
again  to  take  charge  of  her  patients. 

Her  next  care  was  to  visit  Madame  de  Bullion,  a 
devout  lady  of  great  wealth,  who  was  usually  desig- 
nated at  Montreal  as  "the  unknown  benefactress," 
because,  though  her  charities  were  the  mainstay  of 
the  feeble  colony,  and  though  the  source  from  which 
they  proceeded  was  well  known,  she  affected,  in  the 
interest  of  humility,  the  greatest  secrecy,  and 
required  those  who  profited  by  her  gifts  to  pretend 
ignorance  whence  they  came.  Overflowing  with  zeal 
for  the  pious  enterprise,  she  received  her  visitor  with 
enthusiasm,  lent  an  open  ear  to  her  recital,  responded 
graciously  to  her  appeal  for  aid,  and  paid  over  to  her 
the  sum,  munificent  at  that  day,  of  twenty-two 
thousand  francs.  Thus  far  successful.  Mademoiselle 
Mance  repaired  to  the  town  of  La  Fleche  to  visit  Le 
Royer  de  la  Dauversifere. 

It  was  this  wretched  fanatic  who,  through  visions 
and  revelations,   had   first  conceived  the  plan  of  a 

1  For  an  account  of  this  miracle,  written  in  perfect  good  faith 
and  supported  by  various  attestations,  see  Faillon,  Vie  de  M'lle 
Mance,  chap.  iv. 


1659.]  THE   HOSPITAL  NUNS.  101 

hospital  in  honor  of  Saint  Joseph  at  Montreal.^  He 
had  found  in  Mademoiselle  Mance  a  zealous  and 
efficient  pioneer;  but  the  execution  of  his  scheme 
required  a  community  of  hospital  nuns,  and  therefore 
he  had  labored  for  the  last  eighteen  years  to  form 
one  at  La  Fleche,  meaning  to  despatch  its  members 
in  due  time  to  Canada.  The  time  at  length  was 
come.  Three  of  the  nuns  were  chosen,  —  Sisters 
Br^soles,  Mac^,  and  Maillet,  —  and  sent  under  the 
escort  of  certain  pious  gentlemen  to  Rochelle.  Their 
exit  from  La  Fleche  was  not  without  its  difficulties. 
Dauversi^re  was  in  ill  odor,  not  only  from  the  multi- 
plicity of  his  debts,  but  because,  in  his  character  of 
agent  of  the  association  of  Montreal,  he  had  at 
various  times  sent  thither  those  whom  his  biographer 
describes  as  "  the  most  virtuous  girls  to  be  found  at 
La  Fleche,"  intoxicating  them  with  religious  excite- 
ment, and  shipping  them  for  the  New  World  against 
the  will  of  their  parents.  It  was  noised  through  the 
town  that  he  had  kidnapped  and  sold  them ;  and  now 
the  report  spread  abroad  that  he  was  about  to  crown 
his  iniquity  by  luring  away  three  young  nuns.  A 
mob  gathered  at  the  convent  gate,  and  the  escort 
were  forced  to  draw  their  swords  to  open  a  way  for 
the  terrified  sisters. 

Of  the  twenty-two  thousand  francs  which  she  had 

received.  Mademoiselle  Mance  kept  two  thousand  for 

immediate  needs,  and  confided  the  rest  to  the  hands 

of  Dauversiere,  who,  hard  pressed  by  his  creditors, 

^  See  "  The  Jesuits  in  North  America." 


102  THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.      [1659. 

used  it  to  pay  one  of  his  debts;  and  then,  to  his 
horror,  found  himself  unable  to  replace  it.  Racked 
by  the  gout  and  tormented  by  remorse,  he  betook 
himself  to  liis  bed  in  a  state  of  body  and  mind  truly 
pitiable.  One  of  the  miracles,  so  frequent  in  the 
early  annals  of  Montreal,  was  vouchsafed  in  answer 
to  his  prayer,  and  he  was  enabled  to  journey  to 
Rochelle  and  bid  farewell  to  his  nuns.  It  was  but  a 
brief  respite ;  he  returned  home  to  become  the  prey 
of  a  host  of  maladies,  and  to  die  at  last  a  lingering 
and  painful  death. 

While  Mademoiselle  Mance  was  gaining  recruits  in 
La  F  'tic.  Marguerite  Bourgeoys  was  no  less  success- 
ful in  ;T  native  town  of  Troyes ;  and  she  rejoined 
her  GC'  panions  at  Rochelle,  accompanied  by  Sisters 
Ch^teP  'Crolo,  and  Raisin,  her  destined  assistants  in 
the  school  at  Montreal.  Meanwhile,  the  Sulpitians 
and  others  interested  in  the  pious  enterprise,  had 
spared  no  effort  to  gather  men  to  strengthen  the 
colony,  and  young  women  to  serve  as  their  wives; 
and  all  were  now  mustered  at  Rochelle,  waiting  for 
embarkation.  Their  waiting  was  a  long  one.  Laval, 
bishop  at  Quebec,  was  allied  to  the  Jesuits,  and 
looked  on  the  colonists  of  Montreal  with  more  than 
coldness.  Sulpitian  writers  say  that  his  agents  used 
every  effort  to  discourage  them,  and  that  certain 
persons  at  Rochelle  told  the  master  of  the  ship  in 
which  the  emigrants  were  to  sail  that  they  were  not 
to  bo  trusted  to  pay  their  passage-money.  Hereupon 
ensued   a   delay   of   more   than   two   months    before 


1659.]  DELAY   AND   DIFFICULTY.  103 

means  could  be  found  to  quiet  the  scruples  of  the 
prudent  commander.  At  length  the  anchor  was 
weighed,  and  the  dreary  voyage  begun. 

The  woe-begone  company,  crowded  in  the  filthy 
and  infected  ship,  were  tossed  for  two  months  more 
on  the  relentless  sea,  buffeted  by  repeated  storms  and 
wasted  by  a  contagious  fever,  which  attacked  nearly 
all  of  them  and  reduced  Mademoiselle  Mance  to 
extremity.  Eight  or  ten  died  and  were  dropped 
overboard,  after  a  prayer  from  the  two  priests.  At 
length  land  hove  in  sight;  the  piny  odors  of  the 
forest  regaled  their  languid  senses  as  they  sailed  up 
the  broad  estuary  of  the  St.  Lawrence  and  chored 
under  the  rock  of  Quebec. 

High  aloft,  on  the  brink  of  the  cliff,  the  .aw  the 
fieur-de-lis  waving  above  the  fort  of  St.  L.  lis,  and, 
beyond,  the  cross  on  the  tower  of  the  cathedrtl  traced 
against  the  sky,  the  houses  of  the  merchants  on  the 
strand  below,  and  boats  and  canoes  drawn  up  along 
the  bank.  The  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  greeted  them 
as  co-workers  in  a  holy  cause,  with  an  unction  not 
wholly  sincere.  Though  a  unit  against  heresy,  the 
pious  founders  of  New  France  were  far  from  unity 
among  themselves.  To  the  thinking  of  the  Jesuits, 
Montreal  was  a  government  within  a  government,  a 
wheel  within  a  wheel.  This  rival  Sulpitian  settle- 
ment was  in  their  eyes  an  element  of  disorganization 
adverse  to  the  disciplined  harmony  of  the  Canadian 
Church,  which  they  would  fain  have  seen,  with  its 
focus  at  Quebec,  radiating  light  unrefracted  to  the 


104  THE   HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.       [1659. 

uttermost  parts  of  the  colony.  That  is  to  say,  they 
mshed  to  control  it  unchecked,  through  their  ally 
the  bishop. 

The  emigrants,  then,  were  received  with  a  studious 
courtesy,  which  veiled  but  thinly  a  stiff  and  persist- 
ent opposition.  The  bishop  and  the  Jesuits  were 
especially  anxious  to  prevent  the  La  Fleche  nuns 
from  establishing  themselves  at  Montreal,  where  they 
would  form  a  separate  community  under  Sulpitian  in- 
fluence ;  and  in  place  of  the  newly  arrived  sisters  they 
wished  to  substitute  nuns  from  the  H8tel  Dieu  of  Que- 
bec, who  would  be  under  their  own  control.  That 
which  most  strikes  the  non-Catholic  reader  throughout 
this  affair  is  the  constant  reticence  and  dissimulation 
practised,  not  only  between  Jesuits  and  Montrealists, 
but  among  the  Montrealists  themselves.  Their  self- 
devotion,  great  as  it  was,  was  fairly  matched  by  their 
disingenuousness .  ^ 

All  difficulties  being  overcome,  the  Montrealists 
embarked  in  boats  and  ascended  the  St.  Lawrence, 
leaving  Quebec  infected  with  the  contagion  they  had 
brought.  The  journey  now  made  in  a  single  night 
cost  them  fifteen  days  of  hardship  and  danger.  At 
length  they  reached  their  new  home.  The  little 
settlement  lay  before  them,  still  gasping  betwixt  life 
and   death,    in   a   puny,    precarious  infancy.     Some 

1  See,  for  example,  chapter  iv.  of  Faillon's  Life  of  Mademoiselle 
Mance.  The  evidence  is  unanswerable,  the  writer  being  the  par- 
tisan and  admirer  of  most  of  tliose  whose  pieuse  tromperie,  to  use  the 
expression  of  DoUier  de  Casson,  he  describes  in  apparent  uncon- 
sciousness that  anybody  will  see  reason  to  cavil  at  it. 


1659.]  MONTREAL.  105 

forty  small,  compact  houses  were  ranged  parallel  to 
the  river,  chiefly  along  the  line  of  what  is  now  St. 
Paul's  Street.  On  the  left  there  was  a  fort,  and  on 
a  rising  ground  at  the  right  a  massive  windmill  of 
stone,  enclosed  with  a  wall  or  palisade  pierced  for 
musketry,  and  answering  the  purpose  of  a  redoubt 
or  block-house.  1  Fields  studded  with  charred  and 
blackened  stumps,  between  which  crops  were  grow- 
ing, stretched  away  to  the  edges  of  the  bordering 
forest;  and  the  green,  shaggy  back  of  the  mountain 
towered  over  all. 

There  were  at  this  time  a  hundred  and  sixty  men 
at  Montreal,  about  fifty  of  whom  had  families,  or  at 
least  wives.  They  greeted  the  new-comers  with  a 
welcome  which,  this  time,  was  as  sincere  as  it  was 
warm,  and  bestirred  themselves  with  alacrity  to  pro- 
vide them  with  shelter  for  the  winter.  As  for  the 
three  nuns  from  La  Flfeche,  a  chamber  was  hastily 
made  for  them  over  two  low  rooms  which  had  served 
as  Mademoiselle  Mance's  hospital.  This  chamber 
was  twenty-five  feet  square,  with  four  cells  for  the 
nuns,  and  a  closet  for  stores  and  clothing,  which  for 
the  present  was  empty,  as  they  had  landed  in  such 
destitution  that  they  were  forced  to  sell  all  their 
scanty  equipment  to  gain  the  bare  necessaries  of 
existence.  Little  could  be  hoped  from  the  colonists, 
who  were  scarcely  less  destitute  than  they.  Such 
was  their  poverty,  —  thanks  to  Dauversiere's  breach 

^  Lettre  du  Vicomte  d'Argenson,  Gouverneur  die  Canada,  4  Aout, 
1G59,  MS. 


106        THE   HOLY   WARS   OF   MONTREAL.     [1657-6L 

of  trust,  —  that  when  their  clothes  were  worn  out, 
they  were  unable  to  replace  them,  and  were  forced 
to  patch  them  with  such  material  as  came  to  hand. 
jMaisonneuve  the  governor,  and  the  pious  Madame 
d'Ailleboust,  being  once  on  a  visit  to  the  hospital, 
amused  themselves  with  trying  to  guess  of  what  stuff 
the  habits  of  the  nuns  had  originally  been  made,  and 
were  unable  to  agree  on  the  point  in  question.  ^ 

Their  chamber,  which  they  occupied  for  many 
years,  being  hastily  built  of  ill-seasoned  planks,  let 
in  the  piercing  cold  of  the  Canadian  winter  through 
countless  cracks  and  chinks;  and  the  driving  snow 
sifted  through  in  such  quantities  that  they  were 
sometimes  obliged,  the  morning  after  a  storm,  to 
remove  it  with  shovels.  Their  food  would  freeze  on 
the  table  before  them,  and  their  coarse  brown  bread 
had  to  be  thawed  on  the  hearth  before  they  could  cut 
it.  These  women  had  been  nurtured  in  ease,  if  not 
in  luxury.  One  of  them,  Judith  de  Br^soles,  had  in 
her  youth,  by  advice  of  her  confessor,  run  away  from 
parents  who  were  devoted  to  her,  and  immured  her- 
self in  a  convent,  leaving  them  in  agonies  of  doubt 
as  to  her  fate.  She  now  acted  as  superior  of  the 
little  community.  One  of  her  nuns  records  of  her 
that  she  had  a  fervent  devotion  for  the  Infant  Jesus ; 
and  that,  along  with  many  more  spiritual  graces,  he 
inspired  her  with  so  transcendent  a  skill  in  cookery, 
that  "  with  a  small  piece  of  lean  pork  and  a  few  herbs 

1  Annales  des  Hospitali^res  de  Villemarte,  jiar  la  Saur  Mon'ii,  —  a 
contemporary  record,  from  which  Faillon  gives  long  extracts. 


1657-61.]  THE  SISTERS.  107 

she  could  make  soup  of  a  marvellous  relish."  ^  Sister 
Mac^  was  charged  with  the  care  of  the  pigs  and  hens, 
to  whose  wants  she  attended  in  person,  though  she 
too  had  been  delicately  bred.  In  course  of  time,  the 
sisterhood  was  increased  by  additions  from  without, 
—  though  more  than  twenty  girls  who  entered  the 
hospital  as  novices  recoiled  from  the  hardship,  and 
took  husbands  in  the  colony.  Among  a  few  who 
took  the  vows.  Sister  Jumeau  should  not  pass 
unnoticed.  Such  was  her  humility  that,  though  of 
a  good  family  and  unable  to  divest  herself  of  the 
marks  of  good  breeding,  she  pretended  to  be  the 
daughter  of  a  poor  peasant,  and  persisted  in  repeating 
the  pious  falsehood  till  the  merchant  Le  Ber  told  her 
flatly  that  he  did  not  believe  her. 

The  sisters  had  great  need  of  a  man  to  do  the 
heavy  work  of  the  house  and  garden,  but  found  no 
means  of  hiring  one,  when  an  incident,  in  which  they 
saw  a  special  providence,  excellently  supplied  the 
want.  There  was  a  poor  colonist  named  Jouaneaux, 
to  whom  a  piece  of  land  had  been  given  at  some  dis- 
tance from  the  settlement.  Had  he  built  a  cabin 
upon  it,  his  scalp  would  soon  have  paid  the  forfeit; 
but,  being  bold  and  hardy,  he  devised  a  plan  by 
which  he  might  hope  to  sleep  in  safety  without 
abandoning  the  farm  which  was  his  only  possession. 
Among  the  stumps  of  his  clearing  there  was  one  hol- 

1  "  C'etait  par  son  recours  k  I'Enfant  Jesus  qu'elle  trouvait  tons 
ces  secrets  et  d'autres  somblables,"  writes  in  our  own  day  the 
excellent  annalist,  Faillon. 


108        THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.    [1657-61. 

low  with  age.  Under  this  he  dug  a  sort  of  cave,  the 
entrance  of  which  was  a  small  hole  carefully  hidden  by 
brushwood.  The  hollow  stump  was  easily  converted 
into  a  chimney ;  and  by  creeping  into  his  burrow  at 
night,  or  when  he  saw  signs  of  danger,  he  escaped 
for  some  time  the  notice  of  the  Iroquois.  But  though 
he  could  dispense  with  a  house,  he  needed  a  barn  for 
his  hay  and  corn ;  and  while  he  was  building  one,  he 
fell  from  the  ridge  of  the  roof  and  was  seriously  hurt. 
He  was  carried  to  the  Hotel  Dieu,  where  the  nuns 
showed  him  every  attention,  until,  after  a  long  con- 
finement, he  at  last  recovered.  Being  of  a  grateful 
nature  and  enthusiastically  devout,  he  was  so  touched 
by  the  kindness  of  his  benefactors,  and  so  moved  by 
the  spectacle  of  their  piety,  that  he  conceived  the 
wish  of  devoting  his  life  to  their  service.  To  this 
end  a  contract  was  drawn  up,  by  which  he  pledged 
himself  to  work  for  them  as  long  as  strength 
remained;  and  they,  on  their  part,  agreed  to  main- 
tain him  in  sickness  or  old  age. 

This  stout-hearted  retainer  proved  invaluable; 
though  had  a  guard  of  soldiers  been  added,  it  would 
have  been  no  more  than  the  case  demanded.  Montreal 
was  not  palisaded,  and  at  first  the  hospital  was  as 
much  exposed  as  the  rest.  The  Iroquois  would 
skulk  at  night  among  the  houses,  like  wolves  in  a 
camp  of  sleeping  travellers  on  the  prairies;  though 
the  human  foe  was,  of  the  two,  incomparably  the 
bolder,  fiercer,  and  more  bloodthirsty.  More  than 
once   one  of  these  prowling  savages  was  known  to 


1657-61.]  PERIL  OF   THE   NUNS.  109 

have  crouched  all  night  m  a  rank  growth  of  wild 
mustard  in  the  garden  of  the  nuns,  vainly  hoping 
that  one  of  them  would  come  out  within  reach  of  hisl  ^-, 
tomahawk.  During  summer,  a  month  rarely  passedV  "^'^ 
without  a  fight,  sometimes  within  sight  of  their* 
windows.  A  burst  of  yells  from  the  ambushed 
marksmen,  followed  by  a  clatter  of  musketry,  would 
announce  the  opening  of  the  fray,  and  promise  the 
nuns  an  addition  to  their  list  of  patients.  On  these 
occasions  they  bore  themselves  according  to  their 
several  natures.  Sister  Morin,  who  had  joined  their 
number  three  years  after  their  arrival,  relates  that 
Sister  Br^soles  and  she  used  to  run  to  the  belfry 
and  ring  the  tocsin  to  call  the  inhabitants  together. 
"From  our  high  station,"  she  writes,  "we  could 
sometimes  see  the  combat,  which  terrified  us  extremely, 
so  that  we  came  down  again  as  soon  as  we  could, 
trembling  with  fright,  and  thinking  that  our  last 
hour  was  come.  When  the  tocsin  sounded,  my 
Sister  Maillet  would  become  faint  with  excess  of 
fear ;  and  my  Sister  Mac^,  as  long  as  the  alarm  con- 
tinued, would  remain  speechless,  in  a  state  pitiable  to 
see.  They  would  both  get  into  a  corner  of  the  rood- 
loft,  before  the  Holy  Sacrament,  so  as  to  be  prepared 
for  death,  or  else  go  into  their  cells.  As  soon  as  I 
heard  that  the  Iroquois  were  gone,  I  went  to  tell 
them,  which  comforted  them  and  seemed  to  restore 
them  to  life.  My  Sister  Bresoles  was  stronger  and 
more  courageous;  her  terror,  which  she  could  not 
help,  did  not  prevent  her  from  attending  the  sick 


110        THE  HOLY   WARS   OF   MONTREAL.     [1657-61. 

and  receiving  the  dead  and  wounded  who  were 
brought  in." 

The  priests  of  St.  Sulpice,  who  had  assumed  the 
entire  spiritual  charge  of  the  settlement,  and  who 
were  soon  to  assume  its  entire  temporal  charge  also, 
had  for  some  years  no  other  lodging  than  a  room  at 
the  hospital,  adjoining  those  of  the  patients.  They 
caused  the  building  to  be  fortified  with  palisades, 
and  the  houses  of  some  of  the  chief  inhabitants  were 
placed  near  it,  for  mutual  defence.  They  also  built 
two  fortified  houses,  called  Ste.  Marie  and  St. 
Gabriel,  at  the  two  extremities  of  the  settlement,  and 
lodged  in  them  a  considerable  number  of  armed  men, 
whom  they  employed  in  clearing  and  cultivating  the 
surrounding  lands,  the  property  of  their  community. 
All  other  outlying  houses  were  also  pierced  with 
loopholes,  and  fortified  as  well  as  the  slender  means 
of  their  owners  would  permit.  The  laborers  always 
carried  their  guns  to  the  field,  and  often  had  need  to 
use  them.  A  few  incidents  will  show  the  state  of 
Montreal  and  the  character  of  its  tenants. 

In  the  autumn  of  1657  there  was  a  truce  with  the 
Iroquois,  under  cover  of  which  three  or  four  of  them 
came  to  the  settlement.  Nicolas  Godd  and  Jean 
Saint-P^re  were  on  the  roof  of  their  house,  laying 
thatch,  when  one  of  the  visitors  aimed  his  arquebusc 
at  Saint-P^re,  and  brought  him  to  the  ground  like  a 
wild  turkey  from  a  tree.  Now  ensued  a  prodigy; 
for  the  assassins,  having  cut  off  liis  head  and  carried 
it  home  to  their  village,  were  amazed  to  hear  it  speak 


1057-61.]  PRODIGIES.  Ill 

to  them  in  good  Iroquois,  scold  them  for  their  per- 
fidy, and  threaten  them  with  the  vengeance  of 
Heaven;  and  they  continued  to  hear  its  voice  of 
admonition  even  after  scalping  it  and  throwing  away 
the  skull.  1  This  stor}^,  circulated  at  Montreal  on  the  / 
alleged  authority  of  the  Indians  themselves,  found  be- 1 
lievers  among  the  most  intelligent  men  of  the  colony. 

Another  miracle,  which  occurred  several  years 
later,  deserves  to  be  recorded.  Le  IMaitre,  one  of 
the  two  priests  who  had  sailed  from  France  with 
Mademoiselle  Mance  and  her  nuns,  being  one  day  at 
the  fortified  house  of  St.  Gabriel,  went  out  with  the 
laborers  in  order  to  watch  while  they  were  at  their 
work.  In  view  of  a  possible  enemy,  he  had  girded 
himself  with  an  earthly  sword ;  but  seeing  no  sign  of 
danger,  he  presently  took  out  his  breviary,  and,  while 
reciting  his  office  with  eyes  bent  on  the  page,  walked 
into  an  ambuscade  of  Iroquois,  who  rose  before  him 
with  a  yell. 

He  shouted  to  the  laborers,  and,  drawing  his 
sword,  faced  the  whole  savage  crew,  in  order,  prob- 
ably, to  give  the  men  time  to  snatch  their  guns. 
Afraid  to  approach,  the  Iroquois  fired  and  killed 
him;  then  rushed  upon  the  working  party,  who 
escaped  into  the  house,  after  losing  several  of  their 
number.  The  victors  cut  off  the  head  of  the  heroic 
priest,  and  tied  it  in  a  white  handkerchief  which 
they  took  from  a  pocket  of  his  cassock.  It  is  said 
that  on  reaching  their  villages  they  were  astonished 
1  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  1657-1658. 


5 


112       THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-6L 

to  find  the  handkerchief  without  the  slightest  stain 
of  blood,  but  stamped  indelibly  with  the  features  of 
its  late  owner,  so  plainly  marked  that  none  who  had 
known  him  could  fail  to  recognize  them.^  This  not 
very  original  miracle,  though  it  found  eager  credence 
at  Montreal,  was  received  coolly,  like  other  Montreal 
miracles,  at  Quebec ;  and  Sulpitian  writers  complain 
that  the  bishop,  in  a  long  letter  which  he  wrote  to 
the  Pope,  made  no  mention  of  it  whatever. 

Le  Maitre,  on  the  voyage  to  Canada,  had  been 
accompanied  by  another  priest,  Guillaume  de  Vignal, 
who  met  a  fate  more  deplorable  than  that  of  his  com- 
panion, though  unattended  by  any  recorded  miracle. 
Le  Maitre  had  been  killed  in  August.  In  the 
October  following,  Vignal  went  with  thirteen  men, 
in  a  flat-boat  and  several  canoes,  to  Isle  a  la  Pierre, 
nearly  opposite  Montreal,  to  get  stone  for  the  semi- 
nary which  the  priests  had  recently  begun  to  build. 
With  him  was  a  pious  and  valiant  gentleman  named 
Claude  de  Brigeac,  who,  though  but  thirty  years  of 
age,  had  come  as  a  soldier  to  Montreal,  in  the  hope 
of  dying  in  defence  of  the  true  Church,  and  thus 
reaping  the  reward  of  a  martyr.  Vignal  and  three 
or  four  men  had  scarcely  landed  when  they  were  set 
upon  by  a  large  band  of  Iroquois  who  lay  among  the 
bushes   waiting   to  receive  them.     The   rest  of  the 


1  This  story  is  told  by  Sister  Morin,  Marguerite  Bourgeoys,  and 
DoUier  de  Casson,  on  the  authority  of  one  Lavigne,  then  a  prisoner 
among  the  Iroquois,  who  declared  that  he  had  seen  the  handker- 
chief in  the  hands  of  the  returning  warriors. 


1657-61.]  DEATH   OF  VIGNAL.  113 

party,  who  were  still  in  their  boats,  with  a  cowardice 
rare  at  Montreal,  thought  only  of  saving  themselves. 
Claude  de  Brigeac  alone  leaped  ashore  and  ran  to  aid 
his  comrades.  Vignal  was  soon  mortally  wounded. 
Brigeac  shot  the  chief  dead  with  his  arquebuse,  and 
then,  pistol  in  hand,  held  the  whole  troop  for  an 
instant  at  bay ;  but  his  arm  was  shattered  by  a  gun- 
shot, and  he  was  seized,  along  with  Vignal,  Rend 
Cuill^rier,  and  Jacques  Dufresne.  Crossing  to  the 
main  shore,  immediately  opposite  Montreal,  the 
Iroquois  made,  after  their  custom,  a  small  fort  of 
logs  and  branches,  in  which  they  ensconced  them- 
selves, and  then  began  to  dress  the  wounds  of  their  "1 
prisoners.  Seeing  that  Vignal  was  unable  to  make  IN 
the  journey  to  their  villages,  they  killed  him,  divided  | 
his  flesh,  and  roasted  it  for  food. 

Brigeac  and  his  fellows  in  misfortune  spent  a  wo- 
ful  night  in  this  den  of  wolves;  and  in  the  morning 
their  captors,  having  breakfasted  on  the  remains  of 
Vignal,  took  up  their  homeward  march,  dragging  the 
Frenchmen  with  them.  On  reaching  Oneida,  Brigeac 
was  tortured  to  death  with  the  customary  atrocities. 
Cuill^rier,  who  was  present,  declared  that  they  could 
wring  from  him  no  cry  of  pain,  but  that  throughout 
he  ceased  not  to  pray  for  their  conversion.  The 
witness  himself  expected  the  same  fate,  but  an  old 
squaw  happily  adopted  him,  and  thus  saved  his  life. 
He  eventually  escaped  to  Albany,  and  returned  to 
Canada  by  the  circuitous  but  comparatively  safe 
route  of  New  York  and  Boston. 


114       THE  HOLY  WARS   OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-61. 

In  the  following  winter,  Montreal  suffered  an 
irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  the  brave  Major 
Closse,  a  man  whose  intrepid  coolness  was  never 
known  to  fail  in  the  direst  emergency.  Going  to  the 
aid  of  a  party  of  laborers  attacked  by  the  Iroquois, 
he  was  met  by  a  crowd  of  savages,  eager  to  kill  or 
capture  him.  His  servant  ran  off.  He  snapped  a 
pistol  at  the  foremost  assailant,  but  it  missed  fire. 
His  remaining  pistol  served  him  no  better,  and  he 
was  instantly  shot  down.  "He  died,"  writes  Dollier 
de  Casson,  "like  a  brave  soldier  of  Christ  and  the 
King."  Some  of  his  friends  once  remonstrating  with 
him  on  the  temerity  with  which  he  exposed  his  life, 
he  replied:  "Messieurs,  I  came  here  only  to  die  in 
the  service  of  God ;  and  if  I  thought  I  could  not  die 
here,  I  would  leave  this  country  to  fight  the  Turks, 
that  I  might  not  be  deprived  of  such  a  glory."  ^ 

The  fortified  house  of  Ste.  Marie,  belonging  to  the 
priests  of  St.  Sulpice,  was  the  scene  of  several  hot 
and  bloody  fights.  Here,  too,  occurred  the  follow- 
ing nocturnal  adventure.  A  man  named  Lavigne, 
who  had  lately  returned  from  captivity  among  the 
Iroquois,  chancing  to  rise  at  night  and  look  out  of 
the  window,  saw  by  the  bright  moonlight  a  number 
of  naked  warriors  stealthily  gliding  round  a  corner 
and  crouching  near  the  door,  in  order  to  kill  the  first 
Frenchman  who  should  go  out  in  the  morning.  He 
silently  woke  his  comrades ;  and,  having  the  rest  of 
the  night  for  consultation,  they  arranged  their  plan 

1  DoUior  lie  Casson,  Hintoire  du  Montreal,  1601.  1G02. 


1657-61.]  A  YEAR  OF  DISASTER.  115 

SO  well  that  some  of  them,  sallying  from  the  rear  of 
the  house,  came  cautiously  round  upon  the  Iroquois, 
placed  them  between  two  fires,  and  captured  them  all. 

The  summer  of  1661  was  marked  by  a  series  of 
calamities  scarcely  paralleled  even  in  the  annals  of 
this  disastrous  epoch.  Early  in  February,  thirteen 
colonists  were  surprised  and  captured;  next  came  a 
fight  between  a  large  band  of  laborers  and  two  hun- 
dred and  sixty  Iroquois ;  in  the  following  month,  ten 
more  Frenchmen  were  killed  or  taken;  and  thence- 
forth, till  winter  closed,  the  settlement  had  scarcely 
a  breathing  space.  "These  hobgoblins,"  writes  the 
author  of  the  Relation  of  this  year,  "sometimes 
appeared  at  the  edge  of  the  woods,  assailing  us  with 
abuse;  sometimes  they  glided  stealthily  into  the 
midst  of  the  fields,  to  surprise  the  men  at  work; 
sometimes  they  approached  the  houses,  harassing  us 
without  ceasing,  and,  like  importunate  harpies  or 
birds  of  prey,  swooping  down  on  us  whenever  they 
could  take  us  unawares.  "^ 

Speaking  of  the  disasters  of  this  year,  the  soldier- 
priest,  Dollier  de  Casson,  writes :  "  God,  who  afflicts 
the  body  only  for  the  good  of  the  soul,  made  a  mar- 
vellous use  of  these  calamities  and  terrors  to  hold  the 
people  firm  in  their  duty  towards  Heaven.  Vice 
was  then  almost  unknown  here,  and  in  the  midst  of 
war  religion  flourished  on  all  sides  in  a  manner  very 
different  from  what  we  now  see  in  time  of  peace.  "^ 

1  Le  Jeune,  Relation,  1661,  p.  3  (ed.  1858). 

2  Histoire  du  Montreal,  1660,  1661. 


116       THE   HOLY  WARS  OF  MONTREAL.     [1657-GL 

The  war  was,  in  fact,  a  war  of  religion.  The 
small  redoubts  of  logs,  scattered  about  the  skirts  of 
the  settlement  to  serve  as  points  of  defence  in  case 
of  attack,  bore  the  names  of  saints,  to  whose  care 
they  were  commended.  There  was  one  placed  under 
a  higher  protection,  and  called  the  "  Redoubt  of  the 
Infant  Jesus."  Chomedey  de  Maisonneuve,  the 
pious  and  valiant  governor  of  Montreal,  to  whom  its 
successful  defence  is  largely  due,  resolved,  in  view 
of  the  increasing  fury  and  persistency  of  the  Iroquois 
attacks,  to  form  among  the  inhabitants  a  military 
fraternity,  to  be  called  "  Soldiers  of  the  Holy  Family 
of  Jesus,  Maiy,  and  Joseph;"  and  to  this  end  he 
issued  a  proclamation,  of  which  the  following  is  the 
characteristic  beginning :  — 

"We,  Paul  de  Chomedey,  governor  of  the  island 
of  Montreal  and  lands  thereon  dependent,  on  infor- 
mation given  us  from  divers  quarters  that  the  Iroquois 
have  formed  the  design  of  seizing  upon  this  settle- 
ment by  surprise  or  force,  have  thought  it  our  duty, 
seeing  that  this  island  is  the  property  of  the  Holy 
Virgin,  1  to  invite  and  exhort  those  zealous  for  her 
service  to  unite  together  by  squads,  each  of  seven 
persons ;  and  after  choosing  a  corporal  by  a  plurality 
of  voices,  to  report  themselves  to  us  for  enrolment  in 
our  garrison,  and,  in  tliis  capacity,  to  obey  our 
orders,  to  the  end  that  the  country  may  be  saved." 

1  This  is  no  figure  of  speech.  The  Associates  of  Montreal,  after 
receiving  a  grant  of  the  island  from  Jean  de  Lanson,  placed  it  under 
the  protection  of  the  Virgin,  and  formally  declared  her  to  be  the 
proprietor  of  it  from  tliat  day  forth  forever. 


1657-61.]  A   HOLY  WAR.  117 

Twenty  squads,  numbering  in  all  one  hundred  and 
forty  men,  whose  names,  appended  to  the  proclama- 
tion, may  still  be  seen  on  the  ancient  records  of 
Montreal,  answered  the  appeal  and  enrolled  them- 
selves in  the  holy  cause. 

The  whole  settlement  was  in  a  state  of  religious 
exaltation.  As  the  Iroquois  were  regarded  as  actual 
myrmidons  of  Satan  in  his  malign  warfare  against 
Mary  and  her  divine  Son,  those  who  died  in  fighting 
them  were  held  to  merit  the  reward  of  martyrs, 
assured  of  a  seat  in  paradise. 

And  now  it  remains  to  record  one  of  the  most 
heroic  feats  of  arms  ever  achieved  on  this  continent. 
That  it  may  be  rated  as  it  merits,  it  will  be  well  to 
glance  for  a  moment  at  the  condition  of  Canada, 
under  the  portentous  cloud  of  war  which  constantly 
overshadowed  it.^ 

^  In  all  that  relates  to  Montreal,  I  cannot  be  suflBciently  grate- 
ful to  the  Abbe  Faillon,  the  indefatigable,  patient,  conscientious 
chronicler  of  its  early  history  ;  an  ardent  and  prejudiced  Sulpitian, 
a  priest  who  three  centuries  ago  would  have  passed  for  credulous, 
and,  witlial,  a  kind-hearted  and  estimable  man.  His  numerous 
books  on  his  favorite  theme,  with  the  vast  and  heterogeneous  mass 
of  facts  which  they  embody,  are  invaluable,  provided  their  partisan 
character  be  well  kept  in  mind.  His  recent  death  leaves  his  princi- 
pal work  unfinished.  His  Ilistoire  de  la  Colonic  Frun^aisecn  Canada 
—  it  might  more  fitly  be  called  Ilistoire  du  Montreal  —  is  unhappily 
little  more  than  half  complete. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

1660,  1661. 
THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT. 

Suffering  and  Terror.  — Francois  Hertel.  — The  Captive 
Wolf. — The  Threatened  Invasion. —  Daulac  des  Ormeaux. 
—  The  Adventurers  at  the  Long  Sadt. — The  Attack.  — A 
DesperateDefence.  —  AFiNAL  Assault.  —The  Fort  taken. 

Canada  had  writhed  for  twenty  years,  with  little 
respite,  under  the  scourge  of  Iroquois  war.  During 
a  great  part  of  this  dark  period  the  entire  French 
population  was  less  than  three  thousand.  What, 
then,  saved  them  from  destruction?  In  the  first 
place,  the  settlements  were  grouped  around  three  for- 
tified posts,  —  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal, 
—  which  in  time  of  danger  gave  asylum  to  the  fugi- 
tive inhabitants.  Again,  their  assailants  were  con- 
tinually distracted  by  other  wars,  and  never,  except 
at  a  few  spasmodic  intervals,  were  fully  in  earnest 
to  destroy  the  French  colony.  Canada  was  indis- 
pensable to  them.  The  four  upper  nations  of  the 
league  soon  became  dependent  on  her  for  supplies; 
and  all  the  nations  alike  appear,  at  a  very  early 
period,  to  have  conceived  the  policy  on  which  they 


1660-61.]    SUFFERING  AND  TERROR.        119 

afterwards  distinctly  acted,  of  balancing  the  rival 
settlements  of  the  Hudson  and  the  St.  Lawrence,  the 
one  against  the  other.  They  would  torture,  but  not 
kill.  It  was  but  rarely  that,  in  fits  of  fury,  they 
struck  their  hatchets  at  the  brain;  and  thus  the 
bleeding  and  gasping  colony  lingered  on  in  torment. 

The  seneschal  of  New  France,  son  of  the  governor 
Lauson,  was  surprised  and  killed  on  the  island  of 
Orleans,  along  with  seven  companions.  About  the 
same  time,  the  same  fate  befell  the  son  of  Godefroy, 
one  of  the  chief  inhabitants  of  Quebec.  Outside  the 
fortifications  there  was  no  safety  for  a  moment.  A 
universal  terror  seized  the  people.  A  comet  appeared 
above  Quebec,  and  they  saw  in  it  a  herald  of  destruc- 
tion. Their  excited  imaginations  turned  natural 
phenomena  into  portents  and  prodigies.  A  blazing 
canoe  sailed  across  the  sky;  confused  cries  and 
lamentations  were  heard  in  the  air;  and  a  voice  of 
thunder  sounded  from  mid-heaven.  ^  The  Jesuits 
despaired  for  their  scattered  and  persecuted  flocks. 
"  Every  where, "  writes  their  superior,  "we  see  infants 
to  be  saved  for  heaven,  sick  and  dying  to  be  baptized, 
adults  to  be  instructed;  but  everywhere  we  see  the 
Iroquois.  They  haunt  us  like  persecuting  goblins. 
They  kill  our  new-made  Christians  in  our  arms.  If 
they  meet  us  on  the  river,  they  kill  us.  If  they 
find  us  in  the  huts  of  our  Indians,  they  burn  us  and 
them  together. "  2    And  he  appeals  urgently  for  troops 

*  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettre,  Septembre,  1661. 
'^  Relation,  1660  (anonymous),  3. 


120         THE   HEROES   OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1658. 

to  destroy  them,  as  a  holy  work  inspired  by  God, 
and  needful  for  his  service. 

Canada  was  still  a  mission,  and  the  influence  of 
the  Church  was  paramount  and  pervading.  At 
Quebec,  as  at  Montreal,  the  war  with  the  Iroquois 
was  regarded  as  a  war  with  the  hosts  of  Satan.  Of 
the  settlers'  cabins  scattered  along  the  shores  above 
and  below  Quebec,  many  were  provided  with  small 
iron  cannon,  made  probably  by  blacksmiths  in  the 
colony ;  but  they  had  also  other  protectors.  In  each 
was  an  image  of  the  Virgin  or  some  patron  saint; 
and  every  morning  the  pious  settler  knelt  before  the 
shrine  to  beg  the  protection  of  a  celestial  hand  in  his 
perilous  labors  of  the  forest  or  the  farm. 

When,  in  the  summer  of  1658,  the  young  Vicomte 
d'Argenson  came  to  assume  the  thankless  task  of 
governing  the  colony,  the  Iroquois  war  was  at  its 
height.  On  the  day  after  his  arrival,  he  was  wash- 
ing his  hands  before  seating  himself  at  dinner  in  the 
hall  of  the  Chateau  St.  Louis,  when  cries  of  alarm 
were  heard,  and  he  was  told  that  the  Iroquois  were 
close  at  hand.  In  fact,  they  were  so  near  that  their 
war-whoops  and  the  screams  of  their  victims  could 
plainly  be  heard.  Argenson  left  his  guests,  and, 
with  such  a  following  as  he  could  muster  at  the 
moment,  hastened  to  the  rescue;  but  the  assailants 
were  too  nimble  for  him.  The  forests,  which  grew 
at  that  time  around  Quebec,  favored  them  both  in 
attack  and  in  retreat.  After  a  year  or  two  of  experi- 
ence, he  wrote  urgently  to  the  court  for  troops.     He 


1661.]  FRANgOIS   HERTEL.  121 

adds  that,  what  with  the  demands  of  the  harvest  and 
the  unmilitary  character  of  many  of  the  settlers,  the 
colony  could  not  furnish  more  than  a  hundred  men 
for  offensive  operations.  A  vigorous,  aggressive 
war,  he  insists,  is  absolutely  necessary,  and  this 
not  only  to  save  the  colony,  but  to  save  the  only  true 
faith;  "for,"  to  borrow  his  own  words,  "it  is  this 
colony  alone  which  has  the  honor  to  be  in  the  com- 
munion of  the  Holy  Church.  Everywhere  else 
reigns  the  doctrine  of  England  or  Holland,  to  which 
I  can  give  no  other  name,  because  there  are  as  many 
creeds  as  there  are  subjects  who  embrace  them.  They 
do  not  care  in  the  least  whether  the  Iroquois  and  the 
other  savages  of  this  country  have  or  have  not  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  true  God,  or  else  they  are  so  malicious  as 
to  inject  the  venom  of  their  errors  into  souls  incapable 
of  distinguishing  the  truth  of  the  gospel  from  the 
falsehoods  of  heresy ;  and  hence  it  is  plain  that  religion 
has  its  sole  support  in  the  French  colony,  and  that,  if 
this  colony  is  in  danger,  religion  is  equally  in  danger."  ^ 
Among  the  most  interesting  memorials  of  the  time 
are  two  letters  written  by  Franqois  Hertel,  a  youth 
of  eighteen,  captured  at  Three  Rivers,  and  carried  to 
the  Mohawk  towns  in  the  summer  of  1661.  He 
belonged  to  one  of  the  best  families  of  Canada,  and 
was  the  favorite  child  of  his  mother,  to  whom  the 
second  of  the  two  letters  is  addressed.  The  first  is 
to  the  Jesuit  Le  Moyne,  who  had  gone  to  Onondaga, 

1  Papiers   d'Argenson ;    Memoire   stir   le   snjet    de    la    guerre   des 
Iroquois,  1G59  (1660  '?).     MS. 


122        THE  HEROES  OF   THE  LONG   SAUT.      [1661. 

in  July  of  that  year,  to  effect  the  release  of  French 
prisoners  in  accordance  with  the  terms  of  a  truce.  ^ 
Both  letters  were  written  on  birch-bark :  — 

My  Reverend  Father,  —  The  very  day  when  you  left 
Three  Rivers  I  was  captured,  at  about  three  in  the  after- 
noon, by  four  Iroquois  of  the  Mohawk  tribe.  I  would 
not  have  been  taken  alive,  if,  to  my  sorrow,  I  had  not 
feared  that  I  was  not  in  a  fit  state  to  die.  If  you  came 
here,  my  Father,  I  could  have  the  happiness  of  confessing 
to  you  ;  and  I  do  not  think  they  would  do  you  any  harm  ; 
and  I  think  that  I  could  return  home  with  you.  I  pray 
you  to  pity  my  poor  mother,  who  is  in  great  trouble.  You 
know,  my  Father,  how  fond  she  is  of  me.  I  have  heard 
from  a  Frenchman,  who  was  taken  at  Three  Rivers  on  the 
1st  of  August,  that  she  is  well,  and  comforts  herself  with 
the  hope  that  I  shall  see  you.  There  are  three  of 
us  Frenchmen  alive  here.  I  commend  myself  to  your 
good  prayers,  and  particularly  to  the  Holy  Sacrifice  of  the 
Mass.  I  pray  you,  my  Father,  to  say  a  mass  for  me.  I 
pray  you  give  my  dutiful  love  to  my  poor  mother,  and 
console  her,  if  it  pleases  you. 

My  Father,  I  beg  your  blessing  on  the  hand  that  writes 
to  you,  which  has  one  of  the  fingers  burned  in  the  bowl 
of  an  Indian  pipe,  to  satisfy  the  Majesty  of  God  which 
I  have  offended.  The  thumb  of  the  other  hand  is  cut  off  ; 
but  do  not  teU  my  mother  of  it. 

My  Father,  I  pray  you  to  honor  me  with  a  word  from 
your  hand  in  reply,  and  tell  me  if  you  shall  come  here 
before  winter. 

Your  most  humble  and  most  obedient  servant, 

Francois  Hbrtel. 

*  Journal  das  J^mn'tcs,  300. 


1661.]  LETTER  OF   HERTEL.  123 

The  following  is  the  letter  to  his  mother,  sent 
probably,  with  the  other,  to  the  charge  of  Le 
Moyne :  — 

My  most  dear  and  honored  Mother,  —  I  know  very 

well  that  my  capture  must  have  distressed  you  very  much. 

I  ask  you  to  forgive  my  disobedience.     It  is  my  sins  that 

have  placed  me  where   I   am.     I  owe   my    life   to   your 

prayers,  and   those  of  M.   de  Saint-Quentin,   and  of  my 

sisters.     I  hope  to  see  you  again  before  winter.     I  pray 

you  to  tell  the  good  brethren  of  Notre  Dame  to  pray  to 

God  and  the  Holy  Virgin  for  me,  my  dear  mother,  and 

for  you  and  all  my  sisters. 

Your  poor 

Fanchon. 

This,  no  doubt,  was  the  name  by  which  she  had 
called  him  familiarly  when  a  cliild.  And  who  was 
this  "Fanchon,"  this  devout  and  tender  son  of  a  fond 
motlier?  New  England  can  answer  to  her  cost. 
When,  twenty -nine  years  later,  a  band  of  French  and 
Indians  issued  from  the  forest  and  fell  upon  the  fort 
and  settlement  of  Salmon  Falls,  it  was  Francois 
Hertel  who  led  the  attack;  and  when  the  retiring 
victors  were  hard  pressed  by  an  overwhelming  force, 
it  was  he  who,  sword  in  hand,  held  the  pursuers  in 
check  at  the  bridge  of  Wooster  River,  and  covered 
the  retreat  of  his  men.  He  was  ennobled  for  his 
services,  and  died  at  the  age  of  eighty,  the  founder 
of  one  of  the  most  distinguished  families  of  Canada.^ 

1  His  letters  of  nobility,  dated  1716,  will  be  found  in  Daniel's 
Hi.ttoire  des  Grandes  Families  Franqaixes  du  Canada,  404. 


124        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

To  the  New  England  of  old  he  was  the  abhorred  chief 
of  Popish  malignants  and  murdering  savages.  The 
New  England  of  to-day  will  be  more  just  to  the  brave 
defender  of  his  country  and  his  faith. 

In  May,  1660,  a  party  of  French  Algonquins 
captured  a  Wolf,  or  Mohegan,  Indian,  naturalized 
among  the  Iroquois,  brought  him  to  Quebec,  and 
burned  him  there  with  their  usual  atrocity  of  torture. 
A  modern  Catholic  writer  says  that  the  Jesuits  could 
not  save  him;  but  this  is  not  so.  Their  influence 
over  the  consciences  of  the  colonists  was  at  that  time 
unbounded,  and  their  direct  political  power  was  very- 
great.  A  protest  on  their  part,  and  that  of  the  newly 
arrived  bishop,  who  was  in  their  interest,  could  not 
have  failed  of  effect.  The  truth  was,  they  did  not 
care  to  prevent  the  torture  of  prisoners  of  war,  — 
not  solely  out  of  that  spirit  of  compliance  with  the 
savage  humor  of  Indian  allies  which  stains  so  often 
the  pages  of  French  American  history,  but  also,  and 
perhaps  chiefly,  from  motives  purely  religious. 
Torture,  in  their  eyes,  seems  to  have  been  a  blessing 
in  disguise.  They  thought  it  good  for  the  soul,  and 
in  case  of  obduracy  the  surest  way  of  salvation. 
"We  have  very  rarely  indeed,"  writes  one  of  them, 
"seen  the  burning  of  an  Iroquois  without  feeling 
sure  that  he  was  on  the  path  to  paradise;  and  we 
never  knew  one  of  them  to  be  surely  on  the  path  to 
paradise  without  seeing  him  pass  through  this  fiery 
punishment. "  1     So   they  let   tlie    Wolf    burn;    but 

1  Relation,  IGOO,  31. 


1660.]  QUEBEC   IN  DANGER.  125 

first,  having  instructed  him  after  their  fashion,  they 
baptized  him,  and  his  savage  soul  flew  to  heaven  out 
of  the  fire.  "Is  it  not,"  pursues  the  same  writer,  "a 
marvel  to  see  a  wolf  changed  at  one  stroke  into  a 
lamb,  and  enter  into  the  fold  of  Christ,  which  he 
came  to  ravage  ?  " 

Before  he  died,  he  requited  their  spiritual  cares 
with  a  startling  secret.  He  told  them  that  eight 
hundred  Iroquois  warriors  were  encamped  below 
Montreal ;  that  four  hundred  more,  who  had  wintered 
on  the  Ottawa,  were  on  the  point  of  joining  them; 
and  that  the  united  force  would  swoop  upon  Quebec, 
kill  the  governor,  lay  waste  the  town,  and  then 
attack  Three  Rivers  and  Montreal.^  This  time,  at 
least,  the  Iroquois  were  in  deadly  earnest.  Quebec 
was  wild  with  terror.  The  Ursulines  and  the  nuns 
of  the  Hotel  Dieu  took  refuge  in  the  strong  and  ex- 
tensive building  which  the  Jesuits  had  just  finished, 
opposite  the  Parish  Church.  Its  walls  and  palisades 
made  it  easy  of  defence ;  and  in  its  yards  and  court 
were  lodged  the  terrified  Hurons,  as  well  as  the 
fugitive  inhabitants  of  the  neighboring  settlements. 
Others  found  asylum  in  the  fort,  and  others  in  the 
convent  of  the  Ursulines,  which,  in  place  of  nuns, 
was  occupied  by  twenty-four  soldiers,  who  fortified 
it  with  redoubts,  and  barricaded  the  doors  and 
windows.  Similar  measures  of  defence  were  taken 
at  the  Hotel  Dieu,  and  the  streets  of  the  Lower 
Town  were  strongly  barricaded.     Everybody  was  in 

1  Marie  fie  I'lncamation,  Lettre,  25  Juin,  lOGO. 


126         THE   HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

arms,   and  the  Qui  vive  of  the  sentries  and  patrols 
resounded  all  night. ^ 

Several  days  passed,   and   no  Iroquois   appeared. 
The  refugees  took  heart,  and  began  to  return  to  their 
deserted  farms  and  dwellings.     Among  the  rest  was 
a  family  consisting  of  an  old  woman,  her  daughter, 
her  son-in-law,  and  four  small  children,  living  near 
St.    Anne,   some  twenty  miles  below  Quebec.     On 
reaching  home,  the  old  woman  and  the  man  went  to 
their  work  in  the  fields,  while  the  mother  and  chil- 
dren   remained    in    the    house.     Here     they    were 
pounced    upon    and    captured    by    eight    renegade 
Hurons,   Iroquois  by  adoption,  who  placed  them  in 
their  large  canoe,  and  paddled  up  the  river  with  their 
prize.     It  was   Saturday,    a   day  dedicated    to  the 
Virgin;  and  the  captive  mother  prayed  to  her  for 
aid,   "feeling,"  writes  a  Jesuit,   "a  full  conviction 
that,   in  passing  before  Quebec  on  a  Saturday,  she 
would  be  delivered  by  the  power  of  this  Queen  of 
Heaven."    In  fact,  as  the  marauders  and  their  cap- 
tives glided  in  the  darkness  of  night  by  Point  Levi, 
under  the  shadow  of  the  shore,  they  were  greeted 
with  a  volley  of  musketry  from  the  bushes,  and  a 
band   of  French  and   Algonquins   dashed  into   the 
water  to  seize  them.     Five  of  the  eight  were  taken, 
and  the  rest  shot  or  drowned.     The  governor  had 
heard  of  the  descent  at  St.  Anne,  and  despatched  a 

^  On  this  alarm  at  Quebec  compare  Marie  de  I'lncarnatlon,  25 
Jiiin,  1G60 ;  Relation,  1G60,  5 ;  Juchereau,  Ilistuire  de  VUdtel-Dieu  de 
Quebec,  126,  and  Journal  des  Jesuites,  282. 


1660.]  THE   CAPTORS  CAPTURED.  127 

party  to  lie  in  ambush  for  the  authors  of  it.  The 
Jesuits,  it  is  needless  to  say,  saw  a  miracle  in  the 
result.  The  Virgin  had  answered  the  prayer  of  her 
votary, — "though  it  is  true,"  observes  the  father 
who  records  the  marvel,  "that,  in  the  volley,  she 
received  a  mortal  wound."  The  same  shot  struck 
the  infant  in  her  arms.  The  prisoners  were  taken  to 
Quebec,  where  four  of  them  were  tortured  with  even 
more  ferocity  than  had  been  shown  in  the  case  of  the 
unfortunate  Wolf.^  Being  questioned,  they  con- 
firmed his  story,  and  expressed  great  surprise  that 
the  Iroquois  had  not  come,  adding  that  they  must 
have  stopped  to  attack  Montreal  or  Three  Rivers. 
Again  all  was  terror,  and  again  days  passed  and  no 
enemy  appeared.  Had  the  dying  converts,  so  chari- 
tably despatched  to  heaven  through  fire,  sought  an 
unhallowed  consolation  in  scaring  the  abettors  of 
their  torture  with  a  lie  ?  Not  at  all.  Bating  a  slight 
exaggeration,  they  had  told  the  truth.  Where, 
then,   were  the  Iroquois?    As   one  small  point  of 


1  The  torturers  were  Christian  Algonquins,  converts  of  the 
Jesuits.  Chaumonot,  who  was  present  to  give  spiritual  aid  to  the 
sufferers,  describes  the  scene  with  horrible  minuteness.  "  I  could 
not,"  he  says,  "  deliver  them  from  their  torments."  Perhaps  not : 
but  it  is  certain  that  the  Jesuits  as  a  body,  with  or  without  the 
bishop,  could  have  prevented  the  atrocity,  had  tliey  seen  fit.  They 
sometimes  taught  their  converts  to  pray  for  their  enemies.  It 
would  have  been  well  had  they  taught  them  not  to  torture  them. 
I  can  recall  but  one  instance  in  which  they  did  so.  The  prayers 
for  enemies  were  always  for  a  spiritual,  not  a  temporal  good.  The 
fathers  held  the  body  in  slight  account,  and  cared  little  what 
happened  to  it. 


128        THE  HEROES   OF   THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

steel  disarms  the  lightning  of  its  terrors,  so  did  the 
heroism  of  a  few  intrepid  youtlis  divert  this  storm  of 
war,  and  save  Canada  from  a  possible  ruin. 

In  the  preceding  April,  before  the  designs  of  the 
Iroquois  were  known,  a  young  officer  named  Daulac, 
conmiandant  of  the  garrison  of  Montreal,  asked  leave 
of  Maisonneuve,  the  governor,  to  lead  a  party  of 
volunteers  against  the  enemy.  His  plan  was  bold  to 
desperation.  It  was  known  that  Iroquois  warriors  in 
great  numbers  had  wintered  among  the  forests  of  the 
Ottawa.  Daulac  proposed  to  waylay  them  on  their 
descent  of  the  river,  and  fight  them  without  regard 
to  disparity  of  force.  The  settlers  of  Montreal  had 
hitherto  acted  solely  on  the  defensive,  for  their  num- 
bers had  been  too  small  for  aggressive  war.  Of  late 
their  strength  had  been  somewhat  increased,  and 
Maisonneuve,  judging  that  a  display  of  enterprise 
and  boldness  might  act  as  a  check  on  the  audacity  of 
the  enemy,  at  length  gave  his  consent. 

Adam  Daulac,  or  Dollard,  Sieur  des  Ormeaux,  was 
a  young  man  of  good  family,  who  had  come  to  the  col- 
ony three  years  before,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two.  He 
had  held  some  military  command  in  France,  though  in 
what  rank  does  not  appear.  It  was  said  that  he  had 
been  involved  in  some  affair  which  made  him  anxious 
to  wipe  out  the  memory  of  the  past  by  a  noteworthy 
exploit ;  and  he  had  been  busy  for  some  time  among 
the  young  men  of  Montreal,  inviting  them  to  join 
him  in  the  enterprise  he  meditated.  Sixteen  of  them 
caught  his  spirit,  struck  hands  with  him,  and  pledged 


1660.]  DAULAC   DES  ORMEAUX.  129 

their  word.  They  bound  themselves  by  oath  to 
accept  no  quarter;  and,  havmg  gained  Maisonneuve's 
consent,  they  made  their  wills,  confessed,  and 
received  the  sacraments.  As  they  knelt  for  the  last 
time  before  the  altar  in  the  chapel  of  the  Hotel  Dieu, 
that  sturdy  little  population  of  pious  Indian-fighters 
gazed  on  them  with  enthusiasm,  not  unmixed  with 
an  envy  which  had  in  it  nothing  ignoble.  Some  of 
the  chief  men  of  Montreal,  with  the  brave  Charles 
Le  Moyne  at  their  head,  begged  them  to  wait  till  the 
spring  sowing  was  over,  that  they  might  join  them ; 
but  Daulac  refused.  He  was  jealous  of  the  glory 
and  the  danger,  and  he  wished  to  command,  which 
he  could  not  have  done  had  Le  Moyne  been  present. 

The  spirit  of  the  enterprise  was  purely  mediaeval. 
The  enthusiasm  of  honor,  the  enthusiasm  of  adven- 
ture, and  the  enthusiasm  of  faith  were  its  motive 
forces.  Daulac  was  a  knight  of  the  early  crusades 
among  the  forests  and  savages  of  the  New  World. 
Yet  the  incidents  of  this  exotic  heroism  are  definite 
and  clear  as  a  tale  of  yesterday.  The  names,  ages, 
and  occupations  of  the  seventeen  young  men  may 
still  be  read  on  the  ancient  register  of  the  parish  of 
Montreal;  and  the  notarial  acts  of  that  year,  pre- 
served in  the  records  of  the  city,  contain  minute 
accounts  of  such  property  as  each  of  them  possessed. 
The  three  eldest  were  of  twenty-eight,  thirty,  and 
thirty-one  years  respectively.  The  age  of  the  rest 
varied  from  twenty-one  to  twenty-seven.  They  were 
of  various  callings,  — soldiers,  armorers,  locksmiths, 

VOL.  I.  —  0 


130        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

lime-burners,  or  settlers  without  trades.  The 
greater  number  had  come  to  the  colony  as  part  of  the 
reinforcement  brought  by  Maisonneuve  in  1653. 

After  a  solemn  farewell,  they  embarked  in  several 
canoes  well  supplied  with  arms  and  ammunition. 
They  were  very  indifferent  canoe-men ;  and  it  is  said 
that  they  lost  a  week  in  vain  attempts  to  pass  the 
swift  current  of  St.  Anne,  at  the  head  of  the  island 
of  Montreal.  At  length  they  were  more  successful, 
and  entering  the  mouth  of  the  Ottawa,  crossed  the 
Lake  of  Two  Mountains,  and  slowly  advanced  against 
the  current. 

Meanwhile,  forty  warriors  of  that  remnant  of  the 
Hurons  who,  in  spite  of  Iroquois  persecutions,  still 
lingered  at  Quebec,  had  set  out  on  a  war-party,  led 
by  the  brave  and  wily  Etienne  Annahotaha,  their 
most  noted  chief.  They  stopped  by  the  way  at 
Three  Rivers,  where  they  found  a  band  of  Christian 
Algonquins  under  a  chief  named  Mituvemeg. 
Annahotaha  challenged  him  to  a  trial  of  courage, 
and  it  was  agreed  that  they  should  meet  at  Montreal, 
where  they  were  likely  to  find  a  speedy  opportunity 
of  putting  their  mettle  to  the  test.  Thither,  accord- 
ingly, they  repaired,  the  Algonquin  with  three 
followers,  and  the  Huron  with  thirty-nine. 

It  was  not  long  before  they  learned  the  departure 
of  Daulac  and  his  companions.  "  For, ''  observes  the 
honest  Dollier  de  Casson,  "  the  principal  fault  of  our 
Frenchmen  is  to  talk  too  much."  The  wish  seized 
them  to  share  the  adventure,   and  to  that  end  the 


1660.]  INDIAN  ALLIES.  131 

Huron  chief  asked  the  governor  for  a  letter  to 
Daulac,  to  serve  as  credentials.  Maisonneuve  hesi- 
tated. His  faith  in  Huron  valor  was  not  great,  and 
he  feared  the  proposed  alliance.  Nevertheless,  he  at 
length  yielded  so  far  as  to  give  Annahotaha  a  letter, 
in  which  Daulac  was  told  to  accept  or  reject  the 
proffered  reinforcement  as  he  should  see  fit.  The 
Hurons  and  Algonquins  now  embarked,  and  paddled 
in  pursuit  of  the  seventeen  Frenchmen. 

They  meanwhile  had  passed  with  difficulty  the 
swift  current  at  Carillon,  and  about  the  first  of  May 
reached  the  foot  of  the  more  formidable  rapid  called 
the  Long  Saut,  where  a  tumult  of  waters,  foaming 
among  ledges  and  bowlders,  barred  the  onward  way. 
It  was  needless  to  go  farther.  The  Iroquois  were 
sure  to  pass  the  Saut,  and  could  be  fought  here  as 
well  as  elsewhere.  Just  below  the  rapid,  where  the 
forests  sloped  gently  to  the  shore,  among  the  bushes 
and  stumps  of  the  rough  clearing  made  in  construct- 
ing it,  stood  a  palisade  fort,  the  work  of  an 
Algonquin  war-party  in  the  past  autumn.  It  was  a 
mere  enclosure  of  trunks  of  small  trees  planted  in  a 
circle,  and  was  already  ruinous.  Such  as  it  was,  the 
Frenchmen  took  possession  of  it.  Their  first  care, 
one  would  think,  should  have  been  to  repair  and 
strengthen  it;  but  this  they  seem  not  to  have  done, 
—  possibly,  in  the  exaltation  of  their  minds,  they 
scorned  such  precaution.  They  made  their  fires, 
and  slung  their  kettles  on  the  neighboring  shore; 
and  here  they  were  soon  joined  by  the  Hurons  and 


132        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

Algonquins.  Daulac,  it  seems,  made  no  objection 
to  their  company,  and  they  all  bivouacked  together. 
Morning  and  noon  and  night  they  prayed  in  three 
different  tongues;  and  when  at  sunset  the  long  reach 
of  forests  on  the  farther  shore  basked  peacefully  in 
tlie  level  rays,  the  rapids  joined  their  hoarse  music  to 
the  notes  of  their  evening  hymn. 

In  a  day  or  two  their  scouts  came  in  with  tidings 
that  two  Iroquois  canoes  were  coming  down  the  Saut. 
Daulac  had  time  to  set  his  men  in  ambush  among 
the  bushes  at  a  point  where  he  thought  the  strangers 
likely  to  land.  He  judged  aright.  The  canoes, 
bearing  five  Iroquois,  approached,  and  were  met  by 
a  volley  fired  with  such  precipitation  that  one  or 
more  of  them  escaped  the  shot,  fled  into  the  forest, 
and  told  their  mischance  to  their  main  body,  two 
hundred  in  number,  on  the  river  above.  A  fleet  of 
canoes  suddenly  appeared,  bounding  do^vn  the  rapids, 
filled  with  warriors  eager  for  revenge.  The  allies 
had  barely  time  to  escape  to  their  fort,  leaving  their 
kettles  still  slung  over  the  fires.  The  Iroquois  made 
a  hasty  and  desultory  attack,  and  were  quickly 
repulsed.  They  next  opened  a  parley,  hoping,  no 
doubt,  to  gain  some  advantage  by  surprise.  Failing 
in  this,  they  set  themselves,  after  their  custom  on 
such  occasions,  to  building  a  rude  fort  of  their  own 
in  the  neighboring  forest. 

This  gave  the  French  a  breathing-time,  and  they 
used  it  for  strengthening  their  defences.  Being 
provided   with  tools,    they  planted  a  row  of  stakes 


1660.]  THE   FORT  ATTACKED.  133 

within  their  palisade,  to  form  a  double  fence,  and 
filled  the  intervening  space  with  earth  and  stones  to 
the  height  of  a  man,  leaving  some  twenty  loop-holes, 
at  each  of  which  three  marksmen  were  stationed. 
Their  work  was  still  unfinished  when  the  Iroquois 
were  upon  them  again.  They  had  broken  to  pieces 
the  birch  canoes  of  the  French  and  their  allies,  and, 
kindling  the  bark,  rushed  up  to  pile  it  blazing  against 
the  palisade ;  but  so  brisk  and  steady  a  fire  met  them 
that  they  recoiled,  and  at  last  gave  way.  They 
came  on  again,  and  again  were  driven  back,  leaving 
many  of  their  number  on  the  ground,  —  among  them 
the  principal  chief  of  the  Senecas.  Some  of  the 
French  dashed  out,  and,  covered  by  the  fire  of  their 
comrades,  hacked  off  his  head,  and  stuck  it  on  the 
palisade,  while  the  Iroquois  howled  in  a  frenzy  of 
helpless  rage.  They  tried  another  attack,  and  were 
beaten  off  a  third  time. 

This  dashed  their  spirits,  and  they  sent  a  canoe  to 
call  to  their  aid  five  hundred  of  their  warriors  who 
were  mustered  near  the  mouth  of  the  Richelieu. 
These  were  the  allies  whom,  but  for  this  untoward 
check,  they  were  on  their  way  to  join  for  a  combined 
attack  on  Quebec,  Three  Rivers,  and  Montreal.  It 
was  maddening  to  see  their  grand  project  thwarted 
by  a  few  French  and  Indians  ensconced  in  a  paltiy 
redoubt,  scarcely  better  than  a  cattle-pen;  but  they 
were  forced  to  digest  the  affront  as  best  they  might. 

Meanwhile,  crouched  behind  trees  and  logs,  they 
beset  the  fort,  harassing  its  defenders  day  and  night 


134        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

with  a  spattering  fire  and  a  constant  menace  of 
attack.  Thus  five  days  passed.  Hunger,  thirst,  and 
want  of  sleep  wrought  fatally  on  the  strength  of  the 
French  and  their  allies,  who,  pent  up  together  in 
their  narrow  prison,  fought  and  prayed  by  turns. 
Deprived  as  they  were  of  water,  they  could  not 
swallow  the  crushed  Indian  corn,  or  "hominy," 
which  was  their  only  food.  Some  of  them,  under 
cover  of  a  brisk  fire,  ran  down  to  the  river  and  filled 
such  small  vessels  as  they  had;  but  this  pittance 
only  tantalized  their  thirst.  They  dug  a  hole  in  the 
fort,  and  were  rewarded  at  last  by  a  little  muddy 
water  oozing  through  the  clay. 

Among  the  assailants  were  a  number  of  Hurons, 
adopted  by  the  Iroquois  and  fighting  on  their  side. 
These  renegades  now  shouted  to  their  countrymen  in 
the  fort,  telling  them  that  a  fresh  army  was  close  at 
hand ;  that  they  would  soon  be  attacked  by  seven  or 
eight  hundred  warriors;  and  that  their  only  hope 
was  in  joining  the  Iroquois,  who  would  receive  them 
as  friends.  Amiahotaha's  followers,  half  dead  with 
thirst  and  famine,  listened  to  their  seducers,  took  the 
bait,  and,  one,  two,  or  three  at  a  time,  climbed  the 
palisade  and  ran  over  to  the  enemy,  amid  the  lioot- 
ings  and  execrations  of  those  whom  they  deserted. 
Their  chief  stood  firm ;  and  when  he  saw  his  nephew. 
La  Mouche,  join  the  other  fugitives,  he  fired  his 
pistol  at  him  in  a  rage.  The  four  Algonquins,  who 
had  no  mercy  to  hope  for,  stood  fast,  with  the  cour- 
age of  despair, 


1660.]  THE  REINFORCEMENT.  135 

On  the  fifth  day  an  uproar  of  unearthly  yells  from 
seven  hundred  savage  throats,  mingled  with  a  clatter- 
ing salute  of  musketry,  told  the  Frenchmen  that  the 
expected  reinforcement  had  come;  and  soon,  in  the 
forest  and  on  the  clearing,  a  crowd  of  warriors 
mustered  for  the  attack.  Knowing  from  the  Huron 
deserters  the  weakness  of  their  enemy,  they  had  no 
doubt  of  an  easy  victory.  They  advanced  cautiously, 
as  was  usual  with  the  Iroquois  before  their  blood  was 
up,  screecliing,  leaping  from  side  to  side,  and  firing 
as  they  came  on ;  but  the  French  were  at  their  posts, 
and  every  loophole  darted  its  tongue  of  fire.  Besides 
muskets,  they  had  heavy  musketoons  of  large  calibre, 
which,  scattering  scraps  of  lead  and  iron  among  the 
throng  of  savages,  often  maimed  several  of  them  at 
one  discharge.  The  Iroquois,  astonished  at  the  per- 
sistent vigor  of  the  defence,  fell  back  discomfited. 
The  fire  of  the  French,  who  were  themselves  com- 
pletely under  cover,  had  told  upon  them  with  deadly 
effect.  Three  days  more  wore  away  in  a  series  of 
futile  attacks,  made  with  little  concert  or  vigor;  and 
during  all  this  time  Daulac  and  his  men,  reeling  with 
exhaustion,  fought  and  prayed  as  before,  sure  of  a 
martyr's  reward. 

The  uncertain,  vacillating  temper  common  to  all 
Indians  now  began  to  declare  itself.  Some  of  the 
Iroquois  were  for  going  home.  Others  revolted  at 
the  thought,  and  declared  that  it  would  be  an  eternal 
disgrace  to  lose  so  many  men  at  the  hands  of  so 
paltry  an  enemy,  and  yet  fail  to  take  revenge,     It 


136         THE  HEROES   OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

was  resolved  to  make  a  general  assault,  and  volun- 
teers were  called  for  to  lead  the  attack.  After  the 
custom  on  such  occasions,  bundles  of  small  sticks 
were  thrown  upon  the  ground,  and  those  picked 
them  up  who  dared,  thus  accepting  the  gage  of 
battle,  and  enrolling  themselves  in  the  forlorn  hope. 
No  precaution  was  neglected.  Large  and  heavy 
shields  four  or  five  feet  high  were  made  by  lasliing 
together  three  split  logs  with  the  aid  of  cross-bars. 
Covering  themselves  with  these  mantelets,  the  chosen 
band  advanced,  followed  by  the  motley  throng  of 
warriors.  In  spite  of  a  brisk  fire,  they  reached  the 
palisade,  and,  crouching  below  the  range  of  shot, 
hewed  furiously  with  their  hatchets  to  cut  their  way 
through.  The  rest  followed  close,  and  swarmed  like 
angry  hornets  around  the  little  fort,  hacking  and 
tearing  to  get  in. 

Daulac  had  crammed  a  large  musketoon  with 
powder,  and  plugged  up  the  muzzle.  Lighting  the 
fuse  inserted  in  it,  he  tried  to  throw  it  over  the 
barrier,  to  burst  like  a  grenade  among  the  crowd  of 
savages  without ;  but  it  struck  the  ragged  top  of  one 
of  the  palisades,  fell  back  among  the  Frenchmen  and 
exploded,  killing  and  wounding  several  of  them,  and 
nearly  blinding  others.  In  the  confusion  that  fol- 
loAved,  the  Iroquois  got  possession  of  the  loopholes, 
and,  thrusting  in  their  guns,  fired  on  those  within. 
In  a  moment  more  they  had  torn  a  breach  in  the 
palisade;  but,  nerved  with  the  energy  of  despera- 
tion, Daulac  and  his  followers  sprang  to  defend  it. 


The  Death  of  Dollard. 


1  '; 


1660.]  THE  FORT  TAKEN.  137 

Another  breach  was  made,  and  then  another.  Daulac 
was  struck  dead,  but  the  survivors  kept  up  the  fight. 
With  a  sword  or  a  hatchet  in  one  hand  and  a  knife 
in  the  other,  they  threw  themselves  against  tlie 
throng  of  enemies,  striking  and  stabbing  with  the 
fury  of  madmen;  till  the  Iroquois,  despairing  of 
taking  them  alive,  fired  volley  after  volley  and  shot 
them  down.  All  was  over,  and  a  burst  of  triumph- 
ant yells  proclaimed  the  dear-bought  victory. 

Searching  the  pile  of  corpses,  the  victors  found 
four  Frenchmen  still  breathing.  Three  had  scarcely 
a  spark  of  life,  and,  as  no  time  was  to  be  lost,  they 
burned  them  on  the  spot.  The  fourth,  less  fortunate, 
seemed  likely  to  survive,  and  they  reserved  him  for 
future  torments.  As  for  the  Huron  deserters,  their 
cowardice  profited  them  little.  The  Iroquois,  regard- 
less of  their  promises,  fell  upon  them,  burned  some 
at  once,  and  carried  the  rest  to  their  villages  for  a 
similar  fate.  Five  of  the  number  had  the  good 
fortune  to  escape;  and  it  was  from  them,  aided  by 
admissions  made  long  afterwards  by  the  Iroquois 
themselves,  that  the  French  of  Canada  derived  all 
their  knowledge  of  this  glorious  disaster.  ^ 

1  When  the  fugitive  Hurons  reached  Montreal,  they  were  un- 
willing to  confess  their  desertion  of  the  French,  and  declared  that 
they  and  some  others  of  their  people,  to  the  number  of  fourteen, 
had  stood  by  them  to  the  last.  This  was  the  story  told  by  one  of 
them  to  the  Jesuit  Chaumonot,  and  by  him  communicated  in  a 
letter  to  his  friends  at  Quebec.  The  substance  of  this  letter  is 
given  by  Marie  de  ITncarnation,  in  her  letter  to  her  son  of  June  25, 
1660.  The  Jesuit  Relation  of  this  year  gives  another  long  account 
of  the  affair,  also  derived  from  the  Huron  deserters,  Avho  this  time 


138        THE  HEROES  OF  THE  LONG  SAUT.      [1660. 

To  the  colony  it  proved  a  salvation.  The  Iroquois 
had  had  fighting  enough.  If  seventeen  Frenchmen, 
four  Algonquins,  and  one  Huron,  behind  a  picket 
fence,  could  hold  seven  hundred  warriors  at  bay  so 
long,  what  might  they  expect  from  many  such,  fight- 
only  pretended  that  ten  of  their  number  remained  with  the  French. 
They  afterwards  admitted  that  all  had  deserted  but  Annahotaha, 
as  appears  from  the  account  drawn  up  by  Dollier  de  Casson,  in  his 
Histoire  du  Montreal.  Another  contemporary,  Belmont,  who  heard 
the  story  from  an  Iroquois,  makes  the  same  statement.  All  these 
writers,  though  two  of  them  were  not  friendly  to  Montreal,  agree 
that  Daulac  and  his  followers  saved  Canada  from  a  disastrous 
invasion.  The  governor,  Argenson,  in  a  letter  written  on  the  fourth 
of  July  following,  and  in  his  Memoire  sur  le  sujet  de  la  guerre  des 
Iroquois,  expresses  the  same  conviction.  Before  me  is  an  extract, 
copied  from  the  Petit  Registre  de  la  Cure  de  Montreal,  giving  the 
names  and  ages  of  Daulac's  men. 

Radisson,  the  famous  voyageur,  says  that,  on  his  way  down  the 
Ottawa  from  Lake  Superior,  he  passed  the  Long  Saut  eight  days 
after  the  destruction  of  Daulac  and  his  party ;  and  he  gives  an 
account  of  the  fight  that  answers  on  the  whole  to  those  of  the 
other  writers.  He  adds,  however,  that  the  Hurons  remained  out- 
side the  fort,  which  was  too  small  to  hold  them,  and  that  only  the 
seventeen  Frenchmen  and  four  Algonquins  —  or  twenty-one  in  all 
—  were  under  cover.  He  also  says  that  the  reinforcement  which 
joined  the  two  hundred  Iroquois  who  began  the  attack  consisted  of 
"  five  hundred  and  fifty  Iroquoits  of  the  lower  nation  [Mohawks] 
and  fifty  Orijonot"  (Oneidas?),  —  making  with  the  original  assail- 
ants eight  hundred  in  all.  (Puhlicatioris  of  the  Prince  Society,  1885, 
233.)  lladisson,  whose  narratives  were  not  written  till  some  years 
after  the  events  that  they  record,  forgets  the  date  of  the  figlit  at  the 
Long  Saut,  which  would  appear  from  him  to  have  happened  three 
years  after  it  really  took  place. 

Abbe  Faillon  took  extreme  pains  to  collect  the  evidence  touch- 
ing Daulac's  heroism,  and,  tliough  Radisson's  writings  were 
unknown  to  him,  his  narrative  should  be  consulted  by  those  in- 
terested in  tlie  subject.  See  his  anonymous  Histoire  de  la  Colonie 
Franr.aise  au  Canada,  ii.  chap.  xv. 


1660.]  THE   IROQUOIS   BAFFLED.  139 

ing  behind  walls  of  stone?  For  that  year  they 
thought  no  more  of  capturing  Quebec  and  Montreal, 
but  went  home  dejected  and  amazed,  to  howl  over 
their  losses,  and  nurse  their  dashed  courage  for  a  day 
of  vengeance. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

1657-1668. 

THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC. 

Domestic  Strife.  —  Jesuit  and  Sulpitian. — Abbe  Qdetlus. — 
Francois  de  Laval.  —  The  Zealots  of  Caen.  —  Gallican 
AND  Ultramontane.  —  The  Rival  Claimants.  —  Storm  at 
QcEBEC.  —  Laval  Triumphant. 

Canada,  gasping  under  the  Iroquois  tomahawk, 
might,  one  would  suppose,  have  thought  her  cup  of 
tribulation  full,  and,  sated  with  inevitable  woe, 
have  sought  consolation  from  the  wrath  without  in  a 
holy  calm  within.  Not  so,  however;  for  while  the 
heathen  raged  at  the  door,  discord  rioted  at  the 
hearthstone.  Her  domestic  quarrels  were  wonderful 
in  number,  diversity,  and  bitterness.  There  was 
the  standing  quarrel  of  Montreal  and  Quebec,  the 
quarrels  of  priests  with  one  another,  of  priests  with 
the  governor,  and  of  the  governor  with  the  intendant, 
besides  ceaseless  wranglings  of  rival  traders  and  rival 
peculators. 

Some  of  these  disputes  were  local  and  of  no  special 
significance;  while  others  are  very  interesting, 
because,  on  a  remote  and  obscure  theatre,  they  repre- 


1657.]  JESUIT   AND  SULPITIAN.  141 

sent,  sometimes  in  striking  forms,  the  contending 
passions,  and  principles  of  a  most  important  epoch  of 
history.  To  begin  with  one  which  even  to  this  day- 
has  left  a  root  of  bitterness  behind  it. 

The  association  of  pious  enthusiasts  who  had 
founded  Montreal  ^  was  reduced  in  1657  to  a  remnant 
of  five  or  six  persons,  whose  ebbing  zeal  and  over- 
taxed purses  were  no  longer  equal  to  the  devout  but 
arduous  enterprise.  They  begged  the  priests  of  the 
Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice  to  take  it  off  their  hands. 
The  priests  consented;  and,  though  the  conveyance 
of  the  island  of  Montreal  to  these  its  new  proprietors 
did  not  take  effect  till  some  years  later,  four  of  the 
Sulj)itian  fathers  —  Queylus,  Souart,  Galin^e,  and 
Allet  —  came  out  to  the  colony  and  took  it  in  charge. 
Thus  far  Canada  had  had  no  bishop,  and  the 
Sulpitians  now  aspired  to  give  it  one  from  their  own 
brotherhood.  Many  years  before,  when  the  Rdcollets 
had  a  foothold  in  the  colony,  they  too,  or  at  least 
some  of  them,  had  cherished  the  hope  of  giving 
Canada  a  bishop  of  their  own.  As  for  the  Jesuits, 
who  for  nearly  thirty  years  had  of  themselves  consti- 
tuted the  Canadian  church,  they  liad  been  content 
thus  far  to  dispense  with  a  bishop;  for  having  no 
rivals  in  the  field,  they  had  felt  no  need  of  episcopal 
support. 

The  Sulpitians  put  forward  Queylus  as  their  candi- 
date for  the  new  bishopric.     The  assembly  of  French 

^  See  "Jesuits  in  North  America,"  ii.  chap.  xxii. 


142  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657. 

clergy  approved,  and  Cardinal  Mazarin  himself 
seemed  to  sanction,  the  nomination.  The  Jesuits 
saw  that  their  time  of  action  was  come.  It  was  they 
who  had  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  the  day,  the 
toils,  privations,  and  martjrrdoms,  while  as  yet  the 
Sulpitians  had  done  nothing  and  endured  nothing. 
If  any  body  of  ecclesiastics  was  to  have  the  nomina- 
tion of  a  bishop,  it  clearly  belonged  to  them,  the 
Jesuits.  Their  might,  too,  matched  their  right. 
They  were  strong  at  court;  Mazarin  withdrew  his 
assent,  and  the  Jesuits  were  invited  to  name  a  bishop 
to  their  liking. 

Meanwhile  the  Sulpitians,  despairing  of  the 
bishopric,  had  sought  their  solace  elsewhere.  Ships 
bound  for  Canada  had  usually  sailed  from  ports 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen, 
and  the  departing  missionaries  had  received  their 
ecclesiastical  powers  from  him,  till  he  had  learned  to 
regard  Canada  as  an  outlying  section  of  his  diocese. 
Not  unwilling  to  assert  his  claims,  he  now  made 
Queylus  his  vicar-general  for  all  Canada,  thus  cloth- 
ing him  with  episcopal  powers,  and  placing  him  over 
the  heads  of  the  Jesuits.  Queylus,  in  effect  though 
not  in  name  a  bishop,  left  his  companion  Souart  in 
the  spiritual  charge  of  Montreal,  came  down  to 
Quebec,  announced  his  new  dignity,  and  assumed  the 
curacy  of  the  parish.  The  Jesuits  received  him  at 
first  with  their  usual  urbanity,  an  exercise  of  self- 
control  rendered  more  easy  by  their  knowledge  that 


1657.]  ABBE   QUEYLUS.  143 

one  more  potent  than  Queylus  would  soon  arrive  to 
supplant  hira.^ 

The  vicar  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  was  a  man 
of  many  virtues,  devoted  to  good  works,  as  he 
understood  them ;  rich,  for  the  Sulpitians  were  under 
no  vow  of  poverty;  generous  in  almsgiving,  busy, 
indefatigable,  overflowing  with  zeal,  vivacious  in 
temperament  and  excitable  in  temper,  impatient  of 
opposition,  and,  as  it  seems,  incapable,  like  his 
destined  rival,  of  seeing  any  way  of  doing  good  but 
his  own.  Though  the  Jesuits  were  outwardly  cour- 
teous, their  partisans  would  not  listen  to  the  new 
curb's  sermons,  or  listened  only  to  find  fault;  and 
germs  of  discord  grew  vigorously  in  the  parish  of 
Quebec.  Prudence  was  not  among  the  virtues  of 
Queylus.  He  launched  two  sermons  against  the 
Jesuits,  in  which  he  likened  himself  to  Christ  and 
them  to  the  Pharisees.  "Who,"  he  supposed  them 
to  say,  "  is  this  Jesus,  so  beloved  of  the  people,  who 
comes  to  cast  discredit  on  us,  who  for  thirty  or  forty 
years  have  governed  church  and  state  here,  with 
none  to  dispute  us?"^     jje  denounced  such  of  his 

1  A  detailed  account  of  the  experiences  of  Queylus  at  Quebec, 
immediately  after  his  arrival,  as  related  by  himself,  will  be  found 
in  a  memoir  by  the  Sulpitian  Allet,  in  Morale  Pratique  cles  Jesuites, 
xxxiv.  chap.  xii.  In  chapter  ten  of  the  same  volume  the  writer 
says  that  he  visited  Queylus  at  Mont  St.  Valerien,  after  his  return 
from  Canada.  "  II  me  prit  a  part ;  nous  nous  promenames  assez 
longtemps  dans  le  jardin  et  il  m'ouvrit  son  coeur  sur  la  conduite 
des  Jesuites  dans  le  Canada  et  partout  ailleurs.  Messieurs  de  St. 
Sulpice  savent  bien  ce  qu'il  m'en  a  pu  dire,  et  je  suis  assurd  qu'ils 
ne  diront  pas  que  je  I'ai  dil  prendre  pour  des  mensonges." 

2  Journal  cles  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1657. 


144  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657. 

hearers  as  came  to  pick  flaws  in  his  discourse,  and 
told  them  it  would  be  better  for  their  souls  if  they 
lay  in  bed  at  home,  sick  of  a  "good  quartan  fever." 
His  ire  was  greatly  kindled  by  a  letter  of  the  Jesuit 
Pijart,  which  fell  into  his  hands  tlu'ough  a  female 
adherent,  the  pious  Madame  d'Ailleboust,  and  in 
which  that  father  declared  that  he,  Queylus,  was 
waging  war  on  him  and  his  brethren  more  savagely 
than  the  Iroquois.^  "He  was  as  crazy  at  sight  of  a 
Jesuit,"  writes  an  adverse  biographer,  "as  a  mad 
dog  at  sight  of  water.  "^  He  cooled,  however,  on 
being  shown  certain  papers  which  proved  that  his 
position  was  neither  so  strong  nor  so  secure  as  he  had 
supposed;  and  the  governor,  Argenson,  at  length 
persuaded  him  to  retire  to  Montreal.^ 

The  queen-mother,  Anne  of  Austria,  always  in- 
clined to  the  Jesuits,  had  invited  Father  Le  Jeune, 
who  was  then  in  France,  to  make  choice  of  a  bishop 
for  Canada.  It  was  not  an  easy  task.  No  Jesuit 
was  eligible,  for  the  sage  policy  of  Loyola  had 
excluded  members  of  the  order  from  the  bishopric. 
The  signs  of  the  times  portended  trouble  for  the 
Canadian  church,  and  there  was  need  of  a  bishop 
who  would  assert  her  claims  and  fight  her  battles. 
Such  a  man  could  not  be  made  an  instrument  of  the 
Jesuits;  therefore  there  was  double  need  that  he 
should  be  one  with  them  in  sympathy  and  purpose. 

1  Journal  des  Jexuites,  Octohre,  1G57. 

2  Viger,  Notice  Historique  sur  I'Abb^de  Queylus. 
'^  Pa  piers  d' Argenson. 


1657.]  LAVAL.  145 

They  made  a  sagacious  choice.  Le  Jeune  presented 
to  the  queen-mother  the  name  of  Francois  Xavier  de 
Laval-Montmorency,  Abb^  de  Montigny. 

Laval,  for  by  this  name  he  was  thenceforth  known, 
belonged  to  one  of  the  proudest  families  of  Europe, 
and,  churchman  as  he  was,  there  is  much  in  his 
career  to  remind  us  that  in  his  veins  ran  the  blood 
of  the  stern  Constable  of  France,  Anne  de  Mont- 
morency. Nevertheless,  his  thoughts  from  childhood 
had  turned  towards  the  Church,  or,  as  his  biographers 
will  have  it,  all  his  aspirations  were  heavenward. 
He  received  the  tonsure  at  the  age  of  nine.  The 
Jesuit  Bagot  confirmed  and  moulded  his  youthful 
predilections ;  and  at  a  later  period  he  was  one  of  a 
band  of  young  zealots  formed  under  the  auspices  of 
Berni^res  de  Louvigni,  royal  treasurer  at  Caen,  who, 
though  a  layman,  was  reputed  almost  a  saint.  It 
was  B  emigres  who  had  borne  the  chief  part  in  the 
pious  fraud  of  the  pretended  marriage  through  which 
Madame  de  la  Peltrie  escaped  from  her  father's  roof 
to  become  foundress  of  the  Ursulines  of  Quebec.  ^ 
He  had  since  renounced  the  world,  and  dwelt  at 
Caen  in  a  house  attached  to  an  Ursuline  convent, 
and  known  as  the  "Hermitage."  Here  he  lived  like 
a  monk,  in  the  midst  of  a  community  of  young 
priests  and  devotees,  who  looked  to  him  as  their 
spiritual  director,  and  whom  he  trained  in  the 
maxims  and  practices  of  the  most  extravagant,  or,  as 

1  See  "  Jesuits  in  North  America,"  i.  chap.  xiv. 
VOL.  I.  — 10 


146  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657-62. 

his  admirers  say,  the  most  sublime  ultramontane 
piety.  1 

The  conflict  between  the  Jesuits  and  the  Jansenists 
was  then  at  its  height.  The  Jansenist  doctrines  of 
election  and  salvation  by  grace,  which  sapped  the 
power  of  the  priesthood  and  impugned  the  authority 
of  the  Pope  himself  in  his  capacity  of  holder  of  the 
keys  of  heaven,  were  to  the  Jesuits  an  abomination ; 
while  the  rigid  morals  of  the  Jansenists  stood  in 
stern  contrast  to  the  pliancy  of  Jesuit  casuistry. 
Bernieres  and  his  disciples  were  zealous,  not  to  say 
fanatical,  partisans  of  the  Jesuits.  There  is  a  long 
account  of  the  "  Hermitage "  and  its  inmates  from 
the  pen  of  the  famous  Jansenist  Nicole,  —  an  oppo- 
nent, it  is  true,  but  one  whose  qualities  of  mind  and 
character  give  weight  to  his  testimony.  ^ 

"In  this  famous  Hermitage,"  says  Nicole,  "the 
late  Sieur  de  Bernieres  brought  up  a  number  of 
young  men,  to  whom  he  taught  a  sort  of  sublime 
and  transcendental  devotion  called  passive  prayer^ 
because  in  it  the  mind  does  not  act  at  all,  but  merely 
receives  the  divine  operation;  and  this  devotion  is 
the  source  of  all  those  visions  and  revelations  in 
which  the  Hermitage  is  so  prolific."  In  short,  he 
and  his  disciples  were  mystics  of  the  most  exalted 
type.     Nicole  pursues :  "  After  having  thus  subtilized 

^  La  Tour  in  his  Vie  de  Laval  gives  his  maxims  at  length. 

^  M^nwtre  pour  /aire  connoistre  I'esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la  Com- 
paijnie  etablie  en  la  ville  de  Caen,  appellee  I' Hermitage  (Bibliothfeque 
Nationale.    Imprimes.     I'artie  lle'servee).     Written  in  lOGO. 


1657-62.]  THE   ZEALOTS  AT   CAEN.  147 

their  minds,  and  almost  sublimed  them  into  vapor, 
he  rendered  them  capable  of  detecting  Jansenists 
under  any  disguise,  insomuch  that  some  of  his  fol- 
lowers said  that  they  knew  them  by  the  scent,  as 
dogs  know  their  game;  but  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de 
Bernieres  denied  that  they  had  so  subtile  a  sense  of 
smell,  and  said  that  the  mark  by  which  he  detected 
Jansenists  was  their  disapproval  of  his  teachings  or 
their  opposition  to  the  Jesuits." 

The  zealous  band  at  the  Hermitage  was  aided  in 
its  efforts  to  extirpate  error  by  a  sort  of  external 
association  in  the  city  of  Caen,  consisting  of  mer- 
chants, priests,  officers,  petty  nobles,  and  others,  all 
inspired  and  guided  by  Bernieres.  They  met  every 
week  at  the  Hermitage,  or  at  the  houses  of  one 
another.  Similar  associations  existed  in  other  cities 
of  France,  besides  a  fraternity  in  the  Eue  St. 
Dominique  at  Paris,  which  was  formed  by  the  Jesuit 
Bagot,  and  seems  to  have  been  the  parent,  in  a  cer- 
tain sense,  of  the  others.  They  all  acted  together 
when  any  important  object  was  in  view. 

Bernieres  and  his  disciples  felt  that  God  had 
chosen  them  not  only  to  watch  over  doctrine  and 
discipline  in  convents  and  in  families,  but  also  to 
supply  the  prevalent  deficiency  of  zeal  in  bishops  and 
other  dignitaries  of  the  Church.  They  kept,  too,  a 
constant  eye  on  the  humbler  clergy,  and  whenever  a 
new  preacher  appeared  in  Caen,  two  of  their  number 
were  deputed  to  hear  his  sermon  and  report  upon  it. 
If  he  chanced  to  let  fall  a  word  concerning  the  grace 


148  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657-62. 

of  God,  they  denounced  him  for  Jansenistic  heresy. 
Such  commotion  was  once  raised  in  Caen  by  charges 
of  sedition  and  Jansenism,  brought  by  the  Hermitage 
against  priests  and  laymen  hitherto  without  attaint, 
that  the  Bishop  of  Bayeux  thought  it  necessary  to 
interpose;  but  even  he  was  forced  to  pause,  daunted 
by  the  insinuations  of  Berniferes  that  he  was  in  secret 
sympathy  with  the  obnoxious  doctrines. 

Thus  the  Hermitage  and  its  affiliated  societies  con- 
stituted themselves  a  sort  of  inquisition  in  the  interest 
of  the  Jesuits;  "for  what,"  asks  Nicole,  "might  not 
be  expected  from  persons  of  weak  minds  and  atra- 
bilious dispositions,  dried  up  by  constant  fasts, 
vigils,  and  other  austerities,  besides  meditations  of 
three  or  four  hours  a  day,  and  told  continually  that 
the  Church  is  in  imminent  danger  of  ruin  through 
the  machinations  of  the  Jansenists,  who  are  repre- 
sented to  them  as  persons  who  wish  to  break  up  the 
foundations  of  the  Christian  faith  and  subvert  the 
mystery  of  the  Incarnation;  who  believe  neither  in 
transubstantiation,  the  invocation  of  saints,  nor 
indulgences ;  who  wish  to  abolish  the  sacrifice  of  the 
Mass  and  the  sacrament  of  Penitence,  oppose  the 
worship  of  the  Holy  Virgin,  deny  free-will  and  sub- 
stitute predestination  in  its  place,  and,  in  fine,  con- 
spire to  overthrow  the  authority  of  the  Supreme 
Pontife?" 

Among  other  anecdotes,  Nicole  tells  the  following : 
One  of  the  young  zealots  of  the  Hermitage  took  it 
into  liis  head  that  all  Caen  was  full  of  Jansenists, 


1657-62.]  EXTRAVAGANCE.  149 

and  that  the  cur^s  of  the  place  were  in  league  with 
them.  He  inoculated  four  others  with  this  notion, 
and  they  resolved  to  warn  the  people  of  their  danger. 
They  accordingly  made  the  tour  of  the  streets,  with- 
out hats  or  collars,  and  with  coats  unbuttoned, 
though  it  was  a  cold  winter  day,  stopping  every 
moment  to  proclaim  in  a  loud  voice  that  all  the  curds, 
excepting  two,  whom  they  named,  were  abettors  of 
the  Jansenists.  A  mob  was  soon  following  at  their 
heels,  and  there  was  great  excitement.  The  magis- 
trates chanced  to  be  in  session,  and  hearing  of  the 
disturbance,  they  sent  constables  to  arrest  the  authors 
of  it.  Being  brought  to  the  bar  of  justice  and  ques- 
tioned by  the  judge,  they  answered  that  they  were 
doing  the  work  of  God,  and  were  ready  to  die  in  the 
cause ;  that  Caen  was  full  of  Jansenists,  and  that  the 
curds  had  declared  in  their  favor,  inasmuch  as  they 
denied  any  knowledge  of  their  existence.  Four  of 
the  five  were  locked  up  for  a  few  days,  tried,  and 
sentenced  to  a  fine  of  a  hundred  livres,  with  a 
promise  of  further  punishment  should  they  again 
disturb  the  peace.  ^ 

The  fifth,  being  pronounced  out  of  his  wits  by  the 
physicians,  was  sent  home  to  his  mother,  at  a  village 
near  Argentan,  where  two  or  three  of  his  fellow 
zealots  presently  joined  him.  Among  them,  they 
persuaded  his  mother,  who  had  hitherto  been  devoted 

1  Nicole  is  not  the  only  authority  for  this  story.  It  is  also  told 
by  a  very  different  writer.  See  Notice  Historique  de  VAhhaye  de  Ste. 
Claire  d' Argentan,  124. 


150  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657-62. 

to  household  cares,  to  exchange  them  for  a  life  of 
mystical  devotion.  "These  three  or  four  persons," 
says  Nicole,  "attracted  others  as  imbecile  as  them- 
selves." Among  these  recruits  were  a  number  of 
women,  and  several  priests.  After  various  acts  of 
fanaticism,  "two  or  three  days  before  last  Pentecost," 
proceeds  the  narrator,  "they  all  set  out,  men  and 
women,  for  Argentan.  The  priests  had  drawn  the 
skirts  of  their  cassocks  over  their  heads,  and  tied 
them  about  their  necks  with  twisted  straw.  Some  of 
the  women  had  their  heads  bare,  and  their  hair 
streaming  loose  over  their  shoulders.  They  picked 
up  filth  on  the  road,  and  rubbed  their  faces  with  it; 
and  the  most  zealous  ate  it,  saying  that  it  was  neces- 
saiy  to  mortify  the  taste.  Some  held  stones  in  their 
hands,  which  they  knocked  together  to  draw  the 
attention  of  the  passers-by.  They  had  a  leader, 
whom  they  were  bound  to  obey;  and  when  this 
leader  saw  any  mud-hole  particularly  deep  and  dirty, 
he  commanded  some  of  the  party  to  roll  themselves 
in  it,  which  they  did  forthwith.^ 

"After  this  fashion,  they  entered  the  town  of 
Argentan,  and  marched,  two  by  two,  through  all  the 
streets,  crying  with  a  loud  voice  that  the  Faith  was 
perishing,  and  that  whoever  wished  to  save  it  must 
quit  the   country  and    go   with    them   to    Canada, 

^  These  proceedings  were  probably  intended  to  produce  the 
result  which  was  the  constant  object  of  the  mystics  of  the  Her- 
mitage ;  namely,  the  "  annihilation  of  self,"  with  a  view  to  a 
perfect  union  with  God.  To  become  despised  of  men  was  an  im- 
portant if  not  an  essential  step  in  this  mystical  suicide. 


1657-62.]  EULOGY  ON  LAVAL.  151 

whither  they  were  soon  to  repair.  It  is  said  that 
they  still  hold  this  purpose,  and  that  their  leaders 
declare  it  revealed  to  them  that  they  will  find  a  vessel 
ready  at  the  first  port  to  which  Providence  directs 
them.  The  reason  why  they  choose  Canada  for  an 
asylum  is,  that  Monsieur  de  Montigny  (Laval), 
Bishop  of  Petrsea,  who  lived  at  the  Hermitage  a  long 
time,  where  he  was  instructed  in  mystical  theology 
by  Monsieur  de  Bernieres,  exercises  episcopal  func- 
tions there;  and  that  the  Jesuits,  who  are  their 
oracles,   reign  in  that  country." 

This  adventure,  like  the  other,  ended  in  a  collision 
with  the  police.  "The  priests,"  adds  Nicole,  "were 
arrested,  and  are  now  waiting  trial;  and  the  rest 
were  treated  as  mad,  and  sent  back  with  shame  and 
confusion  to  the  places  whence  they  had  come." 

Though  these  pranks  took  place  after  Laval  had 
left  the  Hermitage,  they  serve  to  characterize  the 
school  in  which  he  was  formed;  or,  more  justly 
speaking,  to  show  its  most  extravagant  side.  That 
others  did  not  share  the  views  of  the  celebrated 
Jansenist,  may  be  gathered  from  the  following  pas- 
sage of  the  funeral  oration  pronounced  over  the  body 
of  Laval  half  a  century  later :  — 

"  The  humble  abbd  was  next  transported  into  the 
terrestrial  paradise  of  Monsieur  de  Berniferes.  It  is 
thus  that  I  call,  as  it  is  fitting  to  call  it,  that  famous 
Hermitage  of  Caen,  where  the  seraphic  author  of  the 
'  Christian  Interior '  [Berniferes]  transformed  into 
angels  all  those  who   had  the  happiness  to  be   the 


152  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1657-62. 

companions  of  his  solitude  and  of  his  spiritual  exer- 
cises. It  was  there  that,  during  four  years,  the 
fervent  abb6  drank  the  living  and  abounding  waters 
of  grace  which  have  since  flowed  so  benignly  over 
this  land  of  Canada.  In  this  celestial  abode  his  ordi- 
nary occupations  were  prayer,  mortification,  instruc- 
tion of  the  poor,  and  spiritual  readings  or  conferences ; 
his  recreations  were  to  labor  in  the  hospitals,  wait 
upon  the  sick  and  poor,  make  their  beds,  dress  their 
wounds,  and  aid  them  in  their  most  repulsive 
needs."  ^ 

In  truth,  Laval's  zeal  was  boundless,  and  the 
exploits  of  self-humiliation  recorded  of  him  were 
unspeakably  revolting.^  Berniferes  himself  regarded 
him  as  a  light  by  which  to  guide  his  own  steps  in 
ways  of  holiness.  He  made  journeys  on  foot  about 
the  country,  disguised,  penniless,  begging  from  door 
to  door,  and  courting  scorn  and  opprobrium,  "in 
order,"  says  his  biographer,  "that  he  might  suffer 
for  the  love  of  God."  Yet,  though  living  at  this 
time  in  a  state  of  habitual  religious  exaltation,  he 
was  by  nature  no  mere  dreamer;  and  in  whatever 
heights  his  spirit  might  wander,  his  feet  were  always 
planted  on  the  solid  earth.  His  flaming  zeal  had  for 
its  servants  a  hard,  practical  nature,  perfectly  fitted 
for  the  battle  of  life,  a  narrow  intellect,  a  stiff  and 

1  Eloge  funehre  de  Messire  Francois  Xavicr  de  Laval-Montmorency, 
par  Messire  de  la  Colombiere,  Vicaire  General. 

2  See  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  i.  Some  of  them  were  closely 
akin  to  that  of  the  fanatics  mentioned  above,  who  ate  "  immondices 
d'animaux"   to  mortify  the  taste. 


1657.]        GALLICAN  AND   ULTRAMONTANE.  153 

persistent  will,  and,  as  his  enemies  thought,  the  love 
of  domination  native  to  his  blood. 

Two  great  parties  divided  the  Catholics  of  France, 
—  the  Gallican  or  national  party,  and  the  ultramontane 
or  papal  party.  The  first,  resting  on  the  Scriptural 
injunction  to  give  tribute  to  Caesar,  held  that  to  the 
King,  the  Lord's  anointed,  belonged  the  temporal, 
and  to  the  Church  the  spiritual  power.  It  held  also 
that  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  Church  of  France 
could  not  be  broken  at  the  bidding  of  the  Pope.^ 
The  ultramontane  party,  on  the  other  hand,  main- 
tained that  the  Pope,  Christ's  vicegerent  on  earth, 
was  supreme  over  earthly  rulers,  and  should  of  right 
hold  jurisdiction  over  the  clergy  of  all  Christendom, 
with  powers  of  appointment  and  removal.  Hence 
they  claimed  for  him  the  right  of  nominating  bishops 
in  France.  This  had  anciently  been  exercised  by 
assemblies  of  the  French  clergy,  but  in  the  reign  of 
Francis  I.  the  King  and  the  Pope  had  combined  to 
wrest  it  from  them  by  the  Concordat  of  Bologna. 
Under  this  compact,  which  was  still  in  force,  the 
Pope  appointed  French  bishops  on  the  nomination  of 
the  King,  —  a  plan  which  displeased  the  Galileans, 
and  did  not  satisfy  the  ultramontanes. 

The  Jesuits,  then  as  now,  were  the  most  forcible 
exponents  of  ultramontane  principles.  The  Church 
to  rule  the  world;  the  Pope  to  rule  the  Church;  the 
Jesuits  to   rule   the  Pope,  —  such  was   and   is   the 

^  See  the  famous  Quatre  Articles  of  1682,  in  which  the  liberties 
of  the  Gallican  Church  are  asserted. 


154  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC,  [1657. 

simple  programme  of  the  Order  of  Jesus;  and  to  it 
they  have  held  fast,  except  on  a  few  rare  occasions 
of  misunderstanding  with  the  Vicegerent  of  Christ.^ 
In  the  question  of  papal  supremacy,  as  in  most 
things  else,  Laval  was  of  one  mind  with  them. 

Those  versed  in  such  histories  will  not  be  surprised 
to  learn  that  when  he  received  the  royal  nomination, 
humility  would  not  permit  him  to  accept  it ;  nor  that, 
being  urged,  he  at  length  bowed  in  resignation,  still 
protesting  his  unworthiness.  Nevertheless,  the  royal 
nomination  did  not  take  effect.  The  ultramontanes 
outflanked  both  the  King  and  the  Galileans,  and  by 
adroit  strategy  made  the  new  prelate  completely  a 
creature  of  the  papacy.  Instead  of  appointing  him 
Bishop  of  Quebec,  in  accordance  with  the  royal 
initiative,  the  Pope  made  him  his  vicar  apostolic  for 
Canada,  —  thus  evading  the  King's  nomination,  and 
affirming  that  Canada,  a  countiy  of  infidel  savages, 
was  excluded  from  the  concordat,  and  under  his  (the 
Pope's)  jurisdiction  pure  and  simple.  The  Galileans 
were  enraged.  The  Archbishop  of  Rouen  vainly 
ojjposed,  and  the  parliaments  of  Rouen  and  of  Paris 
vainly  protested.  The  papal  party  prevailed.  The 
King,  or  rather  Mazarin,  gave  his  consent,  subject 
to  certain  conditions,  the  chief  of  which  was  an  oath 
of  allegiance;  and  Laval,  grand  vicar  apostolic, 
decorated  with  the  title  of  Bishop  of  Petrsea,  sailed 

^  For  example,  not  long  after  this  time,  the  Jesuits,  having  a 
dispute  with  Innocent  XL,  threw  themselves  into  the  party  of 
opposition. 


1657.]  LAVAL  AND  QUEYLUS.  155 

for  his  wilderness  diocese  in  the  spring  of  1659.^ 
He  was  but  thirty-six  years  of  age,  but  even  when  a 
boy  he  could  scarcely  have  seemed  young. 

Queylus,  for  a  time,  seemed  to  accept  the  situation, 
and  tacitly  admit  the  claim  of  Laval  as  his  ecclesias- 
tical superior;  but,  stimulated  by  a  letter  from  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen,  he  soon  threw  himself  into  an 
attitude  of  opposition, ^  in  which  the  popularity  which 
his  generosity  to  the  poor  had  won  for  him  gave  him 
an  advantage  very  annoying  to  his  adversary.  The 
quarrel,  it  will  be  seen,  was  three-sided,  —  Galilean 
against  ultramontane,  Sulpitian  against  Jesuit, 
Montreal  against  Quebec.  To  Montreal  the  recal- 
citrant abbd,  after  a  brief  visit  to  Quebec,  had  again 
retired;  but  even  here,  girt  with  his  Sulpitian 
brethren  and  compassed  with  partisans,  the  arm 
of  the  vicar  apostolic  was  long  enough  to  reach 
him. 

By  temperament  and  conviction  Laval  hated  a 
divided  ^./.thority,  and  the  very  shadow  of  a  schism 
was  an  abomination  in  his  sight.  The  young  King, 
who,  tht^gh  abundantly  jealous  of  his  royal  power, 
was  forced  to  conciliate  the  papal  party,  had  sent 
instructions  to  Argenson,  the  governor,  to  support 
Laval,    and     prevent     divisions    in     the     Canadian 

1  Compare  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  with  the  long  statement  in 
Faillon,  Colonie  Frangaise,  ii.  315-335.  Faillon  gives  various  docu- 
ments in  full,  including  the  royal  letter  of  nomination  and  those 
in  which  the  King  gives  a  reluctant  consent  to  the  appointment  of 
the  vicar  apostolic. 

2  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Septembre,  1667. 


156  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1659. 

Church.^  These  instructions  served  as  the  pretext 
of  a  procedure  sufficiently  summary.  A  squad  of 
soldiers,  commanded,  it  is  said,  by  the  governor  him- 
self, went  up  to  Montreal,  brought  the  indignant 
Queylus  to  Quebec,  and  shipped  him  thence  for 
France. 2  By  these  means,  writes  Father  Lalemant, 
order  reigned  for  a  season  in  the  Church. 

It  was  but  for  a  season.  Queylus  was  not  a  man 
to  bide  his  defeat  in  tranquillity,  nor  were  his  brother 
Sulpitians  disposed  to  silent  acquiescence.  Laval, 
on  his  part,  was  not  a  man  of  half  measures.  He 
had  an  agent  in  France,  and  partisans  strong  at 
court.  Fearing,  to  borrow  the  words  of  a  Catholic 
writer,  that  the  return  of  Queylus  to  Canada  would 
prove  "injurious  to  the  glory  of  God,"  he  bestirred 
himself  to  prevent  it.  The  young  King,  then  at 
Aix,  on  his  famous  journey  to  the  frontiers  of  Spain 
to  marry  the  Infanta,  was  induced  to  write  to 
Queylus,  ordering  him  to  remain  in  France.^ 
Queylus,  however,  repaired  to  Rome;  but  even 
against  this  movement  provision  had  been  made; 
accusations  of  Jansenism  had  gone  before  him,  and 
he  met  a  cold  welcome.  Nevertheless,  as  he  had 
powerful  friends  near  the  Pope,  he  succeeded  in 
removing  these  adverse  impressions,  and  even  in 
obtaining  certain  bulls  relating  to  the  establishment 

1  Lf.ttre  du  Roi  a  d'Argenson,  14  Mai,  1050. 

2  Belmont,  Histoire  du  Canada,  a.d.  1059.  Memoir  by  Abbe 
d'Allet,  in  Morale  Pratique  des  J^suitea,  xxxiv.  725. 

3  Lettre  du  Roi  a  Queylus,  27  Fen.,  1000. 


1660-61.]  ANOTHER  STORM.  157 

of  the  parish  of  Montreal,  and  favorable  to  the 
Sulpitians.  Provided  with  these,  he  set  at  nought 
the  King's  letter,  embarked  under  an  assumed 
name,  and  sailed  to  Quebec,  where  he  made  his 
appearance  on  the  third  of  August,  1661,  ^  to  the 
extreme  wrath  of  Laval. 

A  ferment  ensued.  Laval's  partisans  charged  the 
Sulpitians  with  Jansenism  and  opposition  to  the  will 
of  the  Pope.  A  preacher  more  zealous  than  the  rest 
denounced  them  as  priests  of  Antichrist;  and  as  to 
the  bulls  in  their  favor,  it  was  affirmed  that  Queylus 
had  obtained  them  by  fraud  from  the  Holy  Father. 
Laval  at  once  issued  a  mandate  forbidding  him  to 
proceed  to  Montreal  till  ships  should  arrive  with 
instructions  from  the  King.^  At  the  same  time  he 
demanded  of  the  governor  that  he  should  interpose 
the  civil  power  to  prevent  Queylus  from  leaving 
Quebec.^  As  Argenson,  who  wished  to  act  as  peace- 
maker between  the  belligerent  fathers,  did  not  at 
once  take  the  sharp  measures  required  of  him,  Laval 
renewed  his  demand  on  the  next  day,  —  calling  on 
him,  in  the  name  of  God  and  the  King,  to  compel 
Queylus  to  yield  the  obedience  due  to  him,  the  vicar 
apostolic*  At  the  same  time  he  sent  another  to  the 
offending  abbd,  threatening  to  suspend  him  from 
priestly  functions  if  he  persisted  in  his  rebellion.^ 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  AoiLt,  1661. 

2  Lettre  de  Laval  a  Queylus,  4  Ao'&t,  1661. 
8  Lettre  de  Laval  a  d' Argenson,  Ibid. 

*  Ibid.,  5  Aout,  1661. 

*  Lettre  de  Laval  a  Queylus,  Ibid. 


158  THE  DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1661. 

The  incorrigible  Queylus,  who  seems  to  have  lived 
for  some  months  in  a  simmer  of  continual  indigna- 
tion, set  at  nought  the  vicar  apostolic  as  he  had  set 
at  nought  the  King,  took  a  boat  that  very  night,  and 
set  out  for  Montreal  under  cover  of  darkness.  Great 
was  the  ire  of  Laval  when  he  heard  the  news  in  the 
morning.  He  despatched  a  letter  after  him,  declar- 
ing him  suspended  ij)so  facto,  if  he  did  not  instantly 
return  and  make  his  submission.  ^  This  letter,  like 
the  rest,  failed  of  the  desired  effect;  but  the  gover- 
nor, who  had  received  a  second  mandate  from  the 
King  to  support  Laval  and  prevent  a  schism,  ^  now 
reluctantly  interposed  the  secular  arm,  and  Queylus 
was  again  compelled  to  return  to  France. ^ 

His  expulsion  was  a  Sulpitian  defeat.  Laval, 
always  zealous  for  unity  and  centralization,  had 
some  time  before  taken  steps  to  repress  what  he 
regarded  as  a  tendency  to  independence  at  Montreal. 
In  the  preceding  year  he  had  written  to  the  Pope: 
"There  are  some  secular  priests  [Sulpitians]  at 
Montreal,  whom  the  Abb^  de  Queylus  brought  out 
with  him  in  1657,  and  I  have  named  for  the  functions 
of  cur^  the  one  among  them  whom  I  thought  the 
least  disobedient."  The  bulls  which  Queylus  had 
obtained  from  Rome  related  to  this  very  curacy,  and 
greatly  disturbed  the  mind  of  the  vicar  apostolic. 
He  accordingly  wrote  again  to  the   Pope:  "I  pray 

^  Lettre  de  Laval  a  Queijlus,  G  AoiV,  1601. 
2  Lettre  flu  Roi  a  d'Anjenson,  13  Mai,  1660. 

'  For  the  governor's  attitude  in  this  affair,  consult  the  Papiers 
d'Arrjenson,  containing  his  dosi)atches. 


1661.]  VICTORY  OF   LAVAL.  159 

your  Holiness  to  let  me  know  your  will  concerning 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen.  M. 
I'Abb^  de  Queylus,  who  has  come  out  this  year  as 
vicar  of  this  archbishop,  has  tried  to  deceive  us  by 
surreptitious  letters,  and  has  obeyed  neither  our 
prayers  nor  our  repeated  commands  to  desist.  But 
he  has  received  orders  from  the  King  to  return  imme- 
diately to  France,  to  render  an  account  of  his  diso- 
bedience ;  and  he  has  been  compelled  by  the  governor 
to  conform  to  the  will  of  his  Majesty.  What  I  now 
fear  is  that  on  his  return  to  France,  by  using  every 
kind  of  means,  employing  new  artifices,  and  falsely 
representing  our  aifairs,  he  may  obtain  from  the 
Court  of  Rome  powers  which  may  disturb  the  peace 
of  our  Church;  for  the  priests  whom  he  brought 
with  him  from  France,  and  who  live  at  Montreal, 
are  animated  with  the  same  spirit  of  disobedience 
and  division;  and  I  fear,  with  good  reason,  that  all 
belonging  to  the  Seminary  of  St.  Sulpice,  who  may 
come  hereafter  to  join  them,  will  be  of  the  same  dis- 
position. If  what  is  said  is  true,  that  by  means  of 
fraudulent  letters  the  right  of  patronage  of  the  pre- 
tended parish  of  Montreal  has  been  granted  to  the 
superior  of  this  seminary,  and  the  right  of  appoint- 
ment to  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen,  then  is  altar 
reared  against  altar  in  our  Church  of  Canada;  for 
the  clergy  of  Montreal  will  always  stand  in  opposition 
to  me,  the  vicar  apostolic,  and  to  my  successors."^ 

1  Lettre  de  Laval  an  Pape,  22  Oct.,  1061.     Printed  by   Faillon, 
from  the  original  in  the  archives  of  the  Propaganda. 


160  THE   DISPUTED  BISHOPRIC.  [1668. 

These  dismal  forebodings  were  never  realized. 
The  Holy  See  annulled  the  obnoxious  bulls;  the 
Archbishop  of  Rouen  renounced  his  claims,  and 
Queylus  found  his  position  untenable.  Seven  years 
later,  when  Laval  was  on  a  visit  to  France,  a  recon- 
ciliation was  brought  about  between  them.  The 
former  vicar  of  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen  made  his 
submission  to  the  vicar  of  the  Pope,  and  returned  to 
Canada  as  a  missionary.  Laval's  triumph  was  com- 
plete, to  the  joy  of  the  Jesuits,  —  silent,  if  not  idle, 
spectators  of  the  tedious  and  complex  quarrel. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

1659,  1660. 

LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON. 

FRANgois  DE  Laval:  his  Position  and  Character.  —  Arrival 
OF  Argenson.  —  The  Quarrel. 

We  are  touching  delicate  ground.  To  many  excel- 
lent Catholics  of  our  own  day  Laval  is  an  object  of 
veneration.  The  Catholic  university  of  Quebec 
glories  in  bearing  his  name,  and  certain  modern 
ecclesiastical  writers  rarely  mention  him  in  terms 
less  reverent  than  "the  virtuous  prelate,"  or  "the 
holy  prelate."  Nor  are  some  of  his  contemporaries 
less  emphatic  in  eulogy.  Mother  Juchereau  de 
Saint-Denis,  Superior  of  the  Hotel  Dieu,  wrote 
immediately  after  his  death :  "  He  began  in  his 
tenderest  years  the  study  of  perfection,  and  we  have 
reason  to  think  that  he  reached  it,  since  every  virtue 
which  Saint  Paul  demands  in  a  bishop  was  seen  and 
admired  in  him ;  "  and  on  his  first  arrival  in  Canada, 
Mother  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Superior  of  the 
Ursulines,  wrote  to  her  son  that  the  choice  of  such  a 
prelate  was  not  of  man,  but  of  God.  "I  will  not," 
she  adds,  "  say  that  he  is  a  saint ;  but  I  may  say  with 

VOL.  I. 11 


162  LAVAL   AND  ARGENSON.  [1659. 

truth  that  he  lives  like  a  saint  and  an  apostle." 
And  she  describes  his  austerity  of  life ;  how  he  had 
but  two  servants,  a  gardener  —  whom  he  lent  on 
occasion  to  his  needy  neighbors — and  a  valet;  how 
he  lived  in  a  small  hired  house,  saying  that  he  would 
not  have  one  of  his  own  if  he  could  build  it  for  only 
five  sous ;  and  how,  in  his  table,  furniture,  and  bed, 
he  showed  the  spirit  of  poverty,  even,  as  she  thinks, 
to  excess.  His  servant,  a  lay  brother  named  Houssart, 
testified,  after  his  death,  that  he  slept  on  a  hard 
bed,  and  would  not  suffer  it  to  be  changed  even 
when  it  became  full  of  fleas;  and,  what  is  more  to 
the  purpose,  that  he  gave  fifteen  hundred  or  two 
thousand  francs  to  the  poor  every  year.^  Houssart 
also  gives  the  following  specimen  of  his  austerities: 
"  I  have  seen  him  keep  cooked  meat  five,  six,  seven, 
or  eight  days  in  the  heat  of  summer;  and  when  it 
was  all  mouldy  and  wormy  he  washed  it  in  warm 
water  and  ate  it,  and  told  me  that  it  was  very  good." 
The  old  servant  was  so  impressed  by  these  and  other 
proofs  of  liis  master's  sanctity,  that  "I  determined," 
he  says,  "to  keep  everything  I  could  that  had 
belonged  to  his  holy  person,  and  after  his  death  to 
soak  bits  of  linen  in  his  blood  when  his  body  was 
opened,  and  take  a  few  bones  and  cartilages  from  his 
breast,  cut  off  his  hair,  and  keep  his  clothes,  and 
such    things,    to    serve    as    most    precious    relics." 

1  Lettre  du  Frere  Houssart,  ancien  serviteur  de  M'g'r  de  Laval  a 
M.  Tremblay,  1  Sej)t.,  1708.  This  letter  is  printed,  though  with  one 
or  two  important  omissions,  in  the  Abeille,  vol.  i.     (Quebec,  ISIS.) 


1659.]  FRANgOIS   DE  LAVAL.  163 

These  pious  cares  were  not  in  vain,  for  the  relics 
proved  greatly  in  demand. 

Several  portraits  of  Laval  are  extant.  A  drooping 
nose  of  portentous  size;  a  well-formed  forehead;  a 
brow  strongly  arched;  a  bright,  clear  eye;  scanty 
hair,  half  hidden  by  a  black  skullcap;  thin  lips,  com- 
pressed and  rigid,  betraying  a  spirit  not  easy  to  move 
or  convince ;  features  of  that  indescribable  cast  which 
marks  the  priestly  type,  —  such  is  Laval,  as  he  looks 
grimly  down  on  us  from  the  dingy  canvas  of  two 
centuries  ago. 

He  is  one  of  those  concerning  whom  Protestants 
and  Catholics,  at  least  ultramontane  Catholics,  will 
never  agree  in  judgment.  The  task  of  eulogizing 
him  may  safely  be  left  to  those  of  his  own  way  of 
thinking.  It  is  for  us  to  regard  him  from  the  stand- 
point of  secular  history.  And,  first,  let  us  credit 
him  with  sincerity.  He  believed  firmly  that  the 
princes  and  rulers  of  this  world  ought  to  be  subject 
to  guidance  and  control  at  the  hands  of  the  Pope, 
the  vicar  of  Christ  on  earth.  But  he  himself  was 
the  Pope's  vicar,  and,  so  far  as  the  bounds  of  Canada 
extended,  the  Holy  Father  had  clothed  him  with  his 
own  authority.  The  glory  of  God  demanded  that 
this  authority  should  suffer  no  abatement;  and  he, 
Laval,  would  be  guilty  before  Heaven  if  he  did  not 
uphold  the  supremacy  of  the  Church  over  the  powers 
both  of  earth  and  of  hell. 

Of  the  faults  which  he  owed  to  nature,  the  prin- 
cipal seems  to  have  been  an  arlntrary  and  domineer- 


164  LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON.  [1659. 

ing  temper.  He  was  one  of  those  who  by  nature 
lean  always  to  the  side  of  authority;  and  in  the 
English  Revolution  he  would  inevitably  have  stood 
for  the  Stuarts ;  or,  in  the  American  Revolution,  for 
the  Crown.  But  being  above  all  things  a  Catholic 
and  a  priest,  he  was  drawn  by  a  constitutional  neces- 
sity to  the  ultramontane  party,  or  the  party  of  cen- 
tralization. He  fought  lustily,  in  his  way,  against 
the  natural  man ;  and  humility  was  the  virtue  to  the 
culture  of  which  he  gave  his  chief  attention;  but 
soil  and  climate  were  not  favorable.  His  life  was 
one  long  assertion  of  the  authority  of  the  Church, 
and  this  authority  was  lodged  in  himself.  In  his 
stubborn  fight  for  ecclesiastical  ascendency,  he  was 
aided  by  the  impulses  of  a  nature  that  loved  to 
rule,  and  could  not  endure  to  yield.  His  principles 
and  his  instinct  of  domination  were  acting  in  perfect 
unison,  and  his  conscience  was  the  handmaid  of  his 
fault.  Austerities  and  mortifications,  playing  at 
beggar,  sleeping  in  beds  full  of  fleas,  or  performing 
prodigies  of  gratuitous  dirtiness  in  hospitals,  how- 
ever fatal  to  self-respect,  could  avail  little  against 
influences  working  so  powerfully  and  so  insidiously 
to  stimulate  the  most  subtle  of  human  vices.  The 
history  of  the  Roman  Church  is  full  of  Lavals. 

The  Jesuits,  adepts  in  human  nature,  had  made  a 
sagacious  choice  when  they  put  forward  this  con- 
scientious, zealous,  dogged,  and  pugnacious  priest 
to  fight  their  Imttles.  Nor  were  they  ill  pleased 
that,  for  the  present,  he  was  not  Bishop  of  Canada, 


1659.]  APPROACHING  CHANGE.  166 

but  only  vicar  apostolic;  for  such  being  tlie  case, 
they  could  have  him  recalled  if  on  trial  they  did  not 
like  him,  while  an  unacceptable  bishop  would  be  an 
evil  past  remedy. 

Canada  was  entering  a  state  of  transition.  Hitherto 
ecclesiastical  influence  had  been  all  in  all.  The 
Jesuits,  by  far  the  most  educated  and  able  body  of 
men  in  the  colony,  had  controlled  it,  not  alone  in 
things  spiritual,  but  virtually  in  things  temporal 
also;  and  the  governor  may  be  said  to  have  been 
little  else  than  a  chief  of  police,  under  the  direction 
of  the  missionaries.  The  early  governors  were 
themselves  deeply  imbued  with  the  missionary  spirit. 
Champlain  was  earnest  above  all  things  for  convert- 
ing the  Indians ;  Montmagny  was  half -monk,  for  he 
was  a  Knight  of  Malta ;  d' Ailleboust  was  so  insanely 
pious  that  he  lived  with  his  wife  like  monk  and  nun. 
A  change  was  at  hand.  From  a  mission  and  a  trad- 
ing station,  Canada  was  soon  to  become,  in  the  true 
sense,  a  colony ;  and  civil  government  had  begun  to 
assert  itself  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence.  The 
epoch  of  the  martyrs  and  apostles  was  passing  away, 
and  the  man  of  the  sword  and  the  man  of  the  gown 
—  the  soldier  and  the  legist  —  were  threatening  to 
supplant  the  paternal  sway  of  priests ;  or,  as  Laval 
might  have  said,  the  hosts  of  this  world  were 
beleaguering  the  sanctuary,  and  he  was  called  of 
Heaven  to  defend  it.  His  true  antagonist,  though 
three  thousand  miles  away,  was  the  great  minister 
Colbert,  as  purely  a  statesman  as  the  vicar  apostolic 


166  LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON.  [1659. 

was  purely  a  priest.  Laval,  no  doubt,  could  see 
behind  the  statesman's  back  another  adversary,  —  the 
Devil. 

Argenson  was  governor  when  the  crozier  and  the 
sword  began  to  clash,  which  is  merely  another  way 
of  saying  that  he  was  governor  when  Laval  arrived. 
He  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  education,  modera- 
tion, and  sense,  and  he  was  also  an  earnest  Catholic ; 
but  if  Laval  had  his  duties  to  God,  so  had  Argenson 
his  duties  to  the  King,  of  whose  authority  he  was 
the  representative  and  guardian.  If  the  first  col- 
lisions seem  trivial,  they  were  no  less  the  symptoms 
of  a  grave  antagonism.  Argenson  could  have  pur- 
chased peace  only  by  becoming  an  agent  of  the 
Church. 

The  vicar  apostolic,  or,  as  he  was  usually  styled, 
the  bishop,  being,  it  may  be  remembered,  titular 
Bishop  of  Petraea  in  Arabia,  presently  fell  into  a 
quarrel  with  the  governor  touching  the  relative  posi- 
tion of  their  seats  in  church,  —  a  point  which,  by  the 
way,  was  a  subject  of  contention  for  many  years, 
and  under  several  successive  governors.  This  time 
the  case  was  referred  to  the  ex-governor,  d'Ailleboust, 
and  a  temporary  settlement  took  place. ^  A  few 
weeks  after,  on  the  fete  of  Saint  Francis  Xavier, 
when  the  Jesuits  were  accustomed  to  ask  the  digni- 
taries of  the  colony  to  dine  in  their  refectory  after 
mass,  a  fresh  difficulty  arose,  —  Should  the  governor 
or  the  bishop  have  tlie  higher  seat  at  table?     The 

^  Laleniant,  in  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Septemhre,  1659. 


1659-60.]        DISPUTES  OF   PRECEDENCE.  167 

question    defied    solution ;   so    the    fathers    invited 
neither  of  them.  ^ 

Again,  on  Christmas,  at  the  midnight  mass,  the 
deacon  offered  incense  to  the  bishop,  and  then,  in 
ol)edience  to  an  order  from  him,  sent  a  subordinate 
to  offer  it  to  the  governor,  instead  of  offering  it  him- 
self. Laval  further  insisted  that  the  priests  of  the 
choir  should  receive  incense  before  the  governor 
received  it.  Argenson  resisted,  and  a  bitter  quarrel 
ensued.  2 

The  late  governor,  d'Ailleboust,  had  been  church- 
warden ex  officio  ;  ^  and  in  this  pious  community  the 
office  was  esteemed  as  an  addition  to  his  honors. 
Argenson  had  thus  far  held  the  same  position;  but 
Laval  declared  that  he  should  hold  it  no  longer. 
Argenson,  to  whom  the  bishop  had  not  spoken  on 
the  subject,  came  soon  after  to  a  meeting  of  the 
wardens,  and,  being  challenged,  denied  Laval's  right 
to  dismiss  him.  A  dispute  ensued,  in  which  the 
bishop,  according  to  his  Jesuit  friends,  used  language 
not  very  respectful  to  the  representative  of  royalty.* 

On  occasion  of  the  "solemn  catechism,"  the  bishop 
insisted  that  the  children  should  salute  him  before 
saluting  the  governor.  Argenson,  hearing  of  this, 
declined  to  come.  A  compromise  was  contrived. 
It  was  agreed  that  when  the  rival  dignitaries  entered, 

1  Lalemant,  in  Journal  des  J^suites,  Decemhre,  1659. 

2  Ibid. ;  Lettre  d' Argenson  a.  MM.  de  la  Compagnie  de  St.  Sulpice. 
8  Livre  des  Deliberations  de  la  Fabrique  de  Quebec. 

*  Journal  des  Jesnites,  Novembre,  1660. 


168  LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON.  [1661. 

the  children  should  be  busied  in  some  manual  exer- 
cise which  should  prevent  their  saluting  either. 
Nevertheless,  two  boys,  "  enticed  and  set  on  by  their 
parents,"  saluted  the  governor  first,  to  the  great 
indignation  of  Laval.  They  were  whipped  on  the 
next  day  for  breach  of  orders.^ 

Next  there  was  a  sharp  quarrel  about  a  sentence 
pronounced  by  Laval  against  a  heretic,  to  which  the 
governor,  good  Catholic  as  he  was,  took  exception. ^ 
Palm  Sunday  came,  and  there  could  be  no  procession 
and  no  distribution  of  branches,  because  the  gov- 
ernor and  the  bishop  could  not  agree  on  points  of 
precedence.^ 

On  the  day  of  the  Fete  Dieu,  however,  there  was 
a  grand  procession,  which  stopped  from  time  to  time 
at  temporary  altars,  or  reposoirs^  placed  at  intervals 
alonof  its  course.  One  of  these  was  in  the  fort, 
where  the  soldiers  were  drawn  up,  waiting  the 
arrival  of  the  procession.  Laval  demanded  that  they 
should  take  off  their  hats.  Argenson  assented,  and 
the  soldiers  stood  uncovered.  Laval  now  insisted 
that  they  should  kneel.  The  governor  replied  that 
it  was  their  duty  as  soldiers  to  stand ;  whereupon  the 
bishop  refused  to  stop  at  the  altar,  and  ordered  the 
procession  to  move  on.* 

The  above  incidents  are  set  down  in  the  private 
journal  of  the  superior  of  the  Jesuits,  which  was  not 

1  Journal  des  J^suites,  Fevrier,  1661. 

2  Ibid. 

8  Ibid..  Avril,  1661.  *  Ibid.,  Juin,  1661. 


1661.]  APPEAL  OF   ARGENSON.  169 

meant  for  the  public  eye.  The  bishop,  it  will  be 
seen,  was,  by  the  showing  of  his  friends,  in  most 
cases  the  aggressor.  The  disputes  in  question, 
though  of  a  nature  to  provoke  a  smile  on  irreverent 
lips,  were  by  no  means  so  puerile  as  they  appear. 
It  is  difficult  in  a  modern  democratic  society  to  con- 
ceive the  substantial  importance  of  the  signs  and 
symbols  of  dignity  and  authority  at  a  time  and  among 
a  people  where  they  were  adjusted  with  the  most 
scrupulous  precision,  and  accepted  by  all  classes  as 
exponents  of  relative  degrees  in  the  social  and 
political  scale.  Whether  the  bishop  or  the  governor 
should  sit  in  the  higher  seat  at  table  thus  became  a 
political  question,  for  it  defined  to  the  popular  under- 
standing the  position  of  Church  and  State  in  their 
relations  to   government. 

Hence  it  is  not  surprising  to  find  a  memorial, 
drawn  up  apparently  by  Argenson,  and  addressed  to 
the  council  of  State,  asking  for  instructions  when 
and  how  a  governor  —  lieutenant-general  for  the 
King  —  ought  to  receive  incense,  holy  water,  and 
consecrated  bread ;  whether  the  said  bread  should  be 
offered  him  with  sound  of  drum  and  fife;  what 
should  be  the  position  of  his  seat  at  church;  and 
what  place  he  should  hold  in  various  religious  cere- 
monies; whether  in  feasts,  assemblies,  ceremonies, 
and  councils  of  a  purely  civil  character^  he  or  the 
bishop  was  to  hold  the  first  place;  and,  finally,  if 
the  bishop  could  excommunicate  the  inhabitants  or 
others   for  acts   of   a  civil  and   political   character, 


170  LAVAL   AND   ARGENSON.  [1659-60. 

when  the  said  acts  were  pronounced  lawful  by  the 
governor. 

The  reply  to  the  memorial  denies  to  the  bishop  the 
power  of  excommunication  in  civil  matters,  assigns 
to  him  the  second  place  in  meetings  and  ceremonies 
of  a  civil  character,  and  is  very  reticent  as  to  the 
rest.^ 

Argenson  had  a  brother,  a  counsellor  of  State,  and 
a  fast  friend  of  the  Jesuits.  Laval  was  in  corre- 
spondence with  him,  and,  apparently  sure  of  sym- 
pathy, wrote  to  him  touching  his  relations  with  the 
governor.  "  Your  brother, "  he  begins,  "received  me 
on  my  arrival  with  extraordinary  kindness ;  "  but  he 
proceeds  to  say,  that,  perceiving  with  sorrow  that  he 
entertained  a  groundless  distrust  of  those  good  ser- 
vants of  God,  the  Jesuit  fathers,  he,  the  bishop, 
thought  it  his  duty  to  give  him  in  private  a  candid 
warning  which  ought  to  have  done  good,  but  wliich, 
to  his  surprise,  the  governor  had  taken  amiss,  and 
had  conceived,  in  consequence,  a  prejudice  against 
his  monitor.  2 

Argenson,  on  his  part,  writes  to  the  same  brother, 
at  about  the  same  time.  "  The  Bishop  of  Petrsea  is 
so  stiff  in  opinion,  and  so  often  transported  by  his 
zeal  beyond  the  rights  of  his  position,  that  he  makes 
no  diificulty  in  encroaching  on  the  functions  of 
others;  and   this   with  so   much   heat   that  he  will 

*  Advis  et  Resolutions  demandis  sitr  la  Nouvelle  France. 
2  Lettre  de  Laval  a  M.  d'AryenMin,  frere  du   Gouverneur,  20  Oct., 
1G59. 


1659-60.]  CLERICAL  VIGOR.  171 

listen  to  nobody.  A  few  clays  ago  he  carried  off  a 
servant  girl  of  one  of  the  inhabitants  here,  and 
placed  her  by  his  own  authority  in  the  Ursuline 
convent,  on  the  sole  pretext  that  he  wanted  to  have 
her  instructed,  —  thus  depriving  her  master  of  her 
services,  though  he  had  been  at  great  expense  in 
bringing  her  from  France.  This  inhabitant  is  M. 
Denis,  who,  not  knowing  who  had  carried  her  off, 
came  to  me  with  a  petition  to  get  her  out  of  the 
convent.  I  kept  the  petition  thi-ee  days  without 
answering  it,  to  prevent  the  affair  from  being  noised 
abroad.  The  Reverend  Father  Lalemant,  with  whom 
I  communicated  on  the  subject,  and  who  greatly 
blamed  the  Bishop  of  Petraea,  did  all  in  his  power  to 
have  the  girl  given  up  quietly,  but  without  the  least 
success,  so  that  I  was  forced  to  answer  the  petition, 
and  permit  M.  Denis  to  take  his  servant  wherever  he 
should  find  her;  and  if  I  had  not  used  means  to 
bring  about  an  accommodation,  and  if  M.  Denis,  on 
the  refusal  which  was  made  him  to  give  her  up,  had 
brought  the  matter  into  court,  I  should  have  been 
compelled  to  take  measures  which  would  have  caused 
great  scandal,  —  and  all  from  the  self-will  of  the 
Bishop  of  Petraea,  who  says  that  a  hishop  can  do 
what  he  likes,  and  threatens  nothing  but  excom- 
munication." ^ 

In  another  letter  he  speaks  in  the  same  strain  of 
this  redundancy  of  zeal  on  the  part  of  the  bishop, 

^  "  —  Qui  diet  quun  Evesque  peult  ce  qu'il  veult  et  ne  menace  que 
dexcommunication." — Lettre  d'Argenson  a  son  Frere,  1659. 


172  LAVAL  AND  ARGENSON.  [1659-60. 

which  often,  he  says,  takes  the  shape  of  obstinacy 
and  encroachment  on  the  rights  of  others.  "It  is 
greatly  to  be  wished,"  he  observes,  "that  the  Bishop 
of  Petrsea  would  give  his  confidence  to  the  Reverend 
Father  Lalemant  instead  of  Father  Ragueneau;"^ 
and  he  praises  Lalemant  as  a  person  of  excellent 
sense.  "It  would  be  well,"  he  adds,  "if  the  rest  of 
their  community  were  of  the  same  mind ;  for  in  that 
case  they  would  not  mix  themselves  up  with  various 
matters  in  the  way  they  do,  and  would  leave  the 
government  to  those  to  whom  God  has  given  it  in 
charge."  2 

One  of  Laval's  modern  admirers,  the  worthy  Abb^ 
Ferland,  after  confessing  that  his  zeal  may  now  and 
then  have  savored  of  excess,  adds  in  his  defence  that 
a  vigorous  hand  was  needed  to  compel  the  infant 
colony  to  enter  "the  good  path,"  —  meaning,  of 
course,  the  straitest  path  of  Roman  Catholic  ortho- 
doxy. We  may  hereafter  see  more  of  this  stringent 
system  of  colonial  education,  its  success,  and  the 
results  that  followed. 

'  Lettre  d'Argenson  a  son  Frere,  21  Oct.,  1659. 
2  Ibid.,  7  July,  16G0. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

1658-1663. 

LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR. 

Reception  of  Argenson:  his  Difficulties;  his  Recall. — 
Dubois  d'Avaugour.  —  The  Brandy  Quarrel.  —  Distress  of 
Laval.  —  Portents.  —  The  Earthquake. 

When  Argenson  arrived  to  assume  the  govern- 
ment, a  curious  greeting  had  awaited  him.  The 
Jesuits  asked  him  to  dine;  vespers  followed  the 
repast;  and  then  they  conducted  him  into  a  hall, 
where  the  boys  of  their  school  —  disguised,  one  as 
the  Genius  of  New  France,  one  as  the  Genius  of  the 
Forest,  and  others  as  Indians  of  various  friendly 
tribes  —  made  him  speeches  by  turn,  in  prose  and 
verse.  First,  Pierre  du  Quet,  who  played  the 
Genius  of  New  France,  presented  his  Indian  retinue 
to  the  governor,  in  a  complimentary  harangue.  Then 
four  other  boys,  personating  French  colonists,  made 
him  four  flattering  addresses,  in  French  verse. 
Charles  Denis,  dressed  as  a  Huron,  followed,  bewail- 
ing the  ruin  of  his  people,  and  appealing  to  Argenson 
for  aid.  Jean  Francois  Bourdon,  in  the  character  of 
an    Algonquin,    next    advanced    on    the    platform, 


174  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1658, 

boasted  his  courage,  and  declared  that  he  was  ashamed 
to  cry  like  the  Huron.  The  Genius  of  the  Forest 
now  appeared,  with  a  retinue  of  wild  Indians  from 
the  interior,  who,  being  unable  to  speak  French, 
addressed  the  governor  in  their  native  tongues,  which 
the  Genius  proceeded  to  interpret.  Two  other  boys, 
in  the  character  of  prisoners  just  escaped  from  the 
Iroquois,  then  came  forward,  imploring  aid  in  piteous 
accents;  and,  in  conclusion,  the  whole  troop  of 
Indians,  from  far  and  near,  laid  their  bows  and 
arrows  at  the  feet  of  Argenson,  and  hailed  him  as 
their  chief.  ^ 

Besides  these  mock  Indians,  a  crowd  of  genuine 
savages  had  gathered  at  Quebec  to  greet  the  new 
"Onontio."  On  the  next  day  —  at  his  own  cost,  as 
he  writes  to  a  friend  —  he  gave  them  a  feast,  consist- 
ing of  "seven  large  kettles  full  of  Indian  corn,  peas, 
prunes,  sturgeons,  eels,  and  fat,  which  they  devoured, 
having  first  sung  me  a  song,  after  their  fashion."  ^ 

These  festivities  over,  he  entered  on  the  serious 
business  of  his  government,  and  soon  learned  that  his 
path  was  a  thorny  one.  He  could  find,  he  says,  but 
a  hundred  men  to  resist  the  twenty-four  hundred 
warriors  of  the  Iroquois ;  ^  and  he  begs  the  proprietary 

*  La  Reception  de  Monseigneur  le  Vicomte  d' Argenson  par  toutes  les 
nations  du  pais  de  Canada  a  son  entree  an  gouvernemenf.  de  la  Nouvelle 
Fiance ;  a  Quebecq  au  College  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus,  le  28  de 
Juillet  de  I'ann^e  1658.  The  speeches,  in  French  and  Indian,  are 
here  given  verbatim,  with  the  names  of  all  the  boys  who  took  i)art 
in  the  ceremony. 

2  Papiers  d' Argenson.     Kebec,  5  Sept.,  1C58. 

^  Mimoire  sur  le  subject  (sic)  de  la  Guerre  des  Iroquois,  1659. 


1658-59.]    TROUBLES  OF  ARGENSON.        175 

company  which  he  represented  to  send  him  a  hundred 
more,  who  could  serve  as  soldiers  or  laborers,  accord- 
ing to  the  occasion. 

The  company  turned  a  deaf  ear  to  his  appeals. 
They  had  lost  money  in  Canada,  and  were  grievously 
out  of  humor  with  it.  In  their  view,  the  first  duty 
of  a  governor  was  to  collect  their  debts,  which,  for 
more  reasons  than  one,  was  no  easy  task.  While 
they  did  nothing  to  aid  the  colony  in  its  distress, 
they  beset  Argenson  with  demands  for  the  thousand 
pounds  of  beaver-skins,  which  the  inhabitants  had 
agreed  to  send  them  every  year  in  return  for  the 
privilege  of  the  fur-trade,  —  a  privilege  which  the 
Iroquois  war  made  for  the  present  worthless.  The 
perplexed  governor  vents  his  feelings  in  sarcasm. 
"They  [the  company]  take  no  pains  to  learn  the 
truth ;  and  when  they  hear  of  settlers  carried  off  and 
burned  by  the  Iroquois,  they  will  think  it  a  punish- 
ment for  not  settling  old  debts,  and  paying  over  the 
beaver-skins."^  "I  wish,"  he  adds,  "they  would 
send  somebody  to  look  after  their  affairs  here.  I 
would  gladly  give  him  the  same  lodging  and 
entertainment  as  my  own." 

Another  matter  gave  him  great  annoyance.  This 
was  the  virtual  independence  of  Montreal ;  and  here, 
if  nowhere  else,  he  and  the  bishop  were  of  the  same 
mind.  On  one  occasion  he  made  a  visit  to  the  place 
in  question,  where  he  expected  to  be  received  as  gov- 
ernor-general;  but  the  local  governor,  Maisonneuve, 

1  Papiers  d' Argenson,  21  Oct.,  1659. 


176  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1658-59. 

declined,  or  at  least  postponed,  to  take  his  orders 
and  give  him  the  keys  of  the  fort.  Argenson  accord- 
ingly speaks  of  Montreal  as  "  a  place  which  makes  so 
much  noise,  but  which  is  of  such  small  account."^ 
He  adds  that,  besides  wanting  to  be  independent,  the 
Montrealists  want  to  monopolize  the  fur-trade,  which 
would  cause  civil  war;  and  that  the  King  ought  to 
interpose  to  correct  their  obstinacy. 

In  another  letter  he  complains  of  d'Ailleboust,  who 
had  preceded  him  in  the  government,  though  himself 
a  Montrealist.  Argenson  says  that,  on  going  out  to 
fight  the  Iroquois,  he  left  d'Ailleboust  at  Quebec,  to 
act  as  his  lieutenant;  that,  instead  of  doing  so,  he 
had  assumed  to  govern  in  his  own  right;  that  he  had 
taken  possession  of  his  absent  superior's  furniture, 
drawn  his  pay,  and  in  other  respects  behaved  as  if  he 
never  expected  to  see  him  again.  "  When  I  returned, " 
continues  the  governor,  "I  made  him  director  in 
the  council,  without  pay,  as  there  was  none  to 
give  him.  It  was  this,  I  think,  that  made  him 
remove  to  Montreal;  for  which  I  do  not  care,  pro- 
vided the  gloiy  of  our  Master  suffer  no  prejudice 
thereby."  2 

These  extracts  may,  perhaps,  give  an  unjust 
impression  of  Argenson,  who,  from  the  general  tenor 
of  his  letters,  appears  to  have  been  a  temperate  and 
reasonable  person.      His  patience   and  his  nervous 

1  Papiers  d' Argenson,  4  Aoiit,  1659. 

2  Ibid.  Double  de  la  Icttre  escripte  par  le  Vaixseau  du  Gaigneur, 
parti  le  G  Septembre  (1658). 


1658-59.]     TROUBLES  OF  ARGENSON.       177 

system  seem,  however,  to  have  been  taxed  to  the 
utmost.  His  pay  could  not  supj^ort  him.  "The 
costs  of  living  here  are  horrible,"  he  writes.  "I 
have  only  two  thousand  crowns  a  year  for  all  my 
expenses,  and  I  have  already  been  forced  to  run  into 
debt  to  the  company  to  an  equal  amount."  ^  Part  of 
his  scanty  income  was  derived  from  a  fishery  of  eels, 
on  which  sundry  persons  had  encroached,  to  his  great 
detriment.2  "I  see  no  reason,"  he  adds,  "for  staying 
here  any  longer.  When  I  came  to  this  country,  I 
hoped  to  enjoy  a  little  repose,  but  I  am  doubly 
deprived  of  it,  —  on  one  hand  by  enemies  without, 
and  incessant  petty  disputes  within;  and,  on  the 
other,  by  the  difficulty  I  find  in  subsisting.  The 
profits  of  the  fur-trade  have  been  so  reduced  that  all 
the  inhabitants  are  in  the  greatest  poverty.  They 
are  all  insolvent,  and  cannot  pay  the  merchants  their 
advances." 

His  disgust  at  length  reached  a  crisis.  "I  am 
resolved  to  stay  here  no  longer,  but  to  go  home  next 
year.  My  horror  of  dissension,  and  the  manifest 
certainty  of  becoming  involved  in  disputes  with 
certain  persons  with  whom  I  am  unwilling  to  quarrel, 
oblige  me  to  anticipate  these  troubles,  and  seek  some 
way  of  living  in  peace.  These  excessive  fatigues 
are  far  too  much  for  my  strength.  I  am  writing  to 
Monsieur  the  President,  and  to  the  gentlemen  of  the 
Company  of  New  France,  to  choose  some  other  man 

1  Papiers  d'Argenson.     Lettre  a  M.  de  Moranrji,  5  Sept.,  1658. 

2  Deliberations  de  la  Compagnie  de  la  Nouvelle  France. 

VOL.  I. 12 


178  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [166L 

for  this  government."  ^  And  again,  "  If  you  take  any 
interest  in  this  country,  see  that  the  person  chosen  to 
command  here  has,  besides  the  true  piety  necessary 
to  a  Christian  in  every  condition  of  life,  great  firm- 
ness of  character  and  strong  bodily  health.  I  assure 
you  that  without  these  qualities  he  cannot  succeed. 
Besides,  it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  he  should  be 
a  man  of  property  and  of  some  rank,  so  that  he  will 
not  be  despised  for  humble  birth,  or  suspected  of 
coming  here  to  make  his  fortune ;  for  in  that  case  he 
can  do  no  good  whatever.  "^ 

His  constant  friction  with  the  head  of  the  Church 
distressed  the  pious  governor,  and  made  his  recall 
doubly  a  relief.  According  to  a  contemporary  writer, 
Laval  was  the  means  of  delivering  him  from  the 
burden  of  government,  having  written  to  the  Presi- 
dent Lamoignon  to  urge  his  removal.^  Be  this  as  it 
may,  it  is  certain  that  the  bishop  was  not  sorry  to  be 
rid  of  him. 

The  Baron  Dubois  d'Avaugour  arrived  to  take  his 
place.  He  was  an  old  soldier  of  forty  years'  service,* 
blunt,  imperative,  and  sometimes  obstinate  to  per- 
verseness,  but  full  of  energy,  and  of  a  probity  which 
even  his  enemies  confessed.  "  He  served  a  long  time 
in  Germany  while  you  were  there,"  writes  the  minis- 

1  Pnpiers  d'Argenson.    Lettre  a  son  Frere,  1659. 

2  Ibid.  Lettre  (a  son  Frere?},  4  Nov.,  1G60.  The  originals  of 
Argenson's  letters  were  destroyed  in  the  burning  of  the  library  of 
the  Louvre  by  the  Commune. 

•*  Lachcnaye,  M€inoire  sur  le  Canada. 
■*  Avaugour,  Memoire,  4  Aoiit,  10G3. 


Dubois  d'Avau^our. 


'unoht,  jSo/,  hy  Ziftie-.  3rcwn-,&  ; 


Soit^ii  &  CfJ'aru. 


II 


1661-62.]  THE  BRANDY   QUARREL.  179 

ter  Colbert  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy,  "  and  you  must 
have  known  his  talents,  as  well  as  his  bizarre  and 
somewhat  impracticable  temper."  On  landing,  he 
would  have  no  reception,  being,  as  Father  Lalemant 
observes,  "an  enemy  of  all  ceremony."  He  went, 
however,  to  see  the  Jesuits,  and  "took  a  morsel  of 
food  in  our  refectory."  ^  Laval  was  prepared  to 
receive  him  with  all  solemnity  at  the  Church;  but 
the  governor  would  not  go.  He  soon  set  out  on  a 
tour  of  observation  as  far  as  Montreal,  whence  he 
returned  delighted  with  the  country,  and  immediately 
wrote  to  Colbert  in  high  praise  of  it,  observing  that 
the  St.  Lawrence  was  the  most  beautiful  river  he  had 
ever  seen.^ 

It  was  clear  from  the  first  that,  while  he  had  a 
prepossession  against  the  bishop,  he  wished  to  be  on 
good  terms  with  the  Jesuits.  He  began  by  placing 
some  of  them  on  the  council;  but  they  and  Laval 
were  too  closely  united ;  and  if  Avaugour  thought  to 
separate  them,  he  signally  failed.  A  few  months 
only  had  elapsed  when  we  find  it  noted  in  Father 
Lalemant's  private  journal  that  the  governor  had 
dissolved  the  council  and  appointed  a  new  one,  and 
that  other  "changes  and  troubles"  had  befallen. 
The  inevitable  quarrel  had  broken  out;  it  was  a  com- 
plex one,  but  the  chief  occasion  of  dispute  was  fortu- 
nate for  the  ecclesiastics,  since  it  placed  them,  to  a 
certain  degree,  morally  in  the  right. 

^  Lalemant,  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Sepiemhre,  IGQl, 
2  Leitre  d' Avaugour  au  Ministre,  166L 


180  LAVAL  AND   AVAUGOUR.  [1661-62. 

The  question  at  issue  was  not  new.  It  had  agi- 
tated the  colony  for  years,  and  had  been  the  spring 
of  some  of  Argenson's  many  troubles.  Nor  did  it 
cease  with  Avaugour,  for  we  shall  trace  its  course 
hereafter,  tumultuous  as  a  tornado.  It  was  simply 
the  temperance  question,  —  not  as  regards  the 
colonists,  though  here,  too,  there  was  great  room  for 
reform,  but  as  regards  the  Indians. 

Their  inordinate  passion  for  brandy  had  long  been 
the  source  of  excessive  disorders.  They  drank 
expressly  to  get  drunk,  and  when  drunk  they  were 
like  wild  beasts.  Crime  and  violence  of  all  sorts 
ensued ;  the  priests  saw  their  teachings  despised  and 
their  flocks  ruined.  On  the  other  hand,  the  sale  of 
brandy  was  a  chief  source  of  profit,  direct  or  indirect, 
to  all  those  interested  in  the  fur-trade,  including  the 
principal  persons  of  the  colony.  In  Argenson's  time, 
Laval  launched  an  excommunication  against  those 
engaged  in  the  abhorred  traffic;  for  nothing  less 
than  total  prohibition  would  content  the  clerical 
party,  and  besides  the  spiritual  penalty,  they  demanded 
the  punishment  of  death  against  the  contumacious 
offender.  Death,  in  fact,  was  decreed.  Such  was 
the  posture  of  affairs  when  Avaugour  arrived;  and, 
willing  as  he  was  to  conciliate  the  Jesuits,  he  per- 
mitted the  decree  to  take  effect,  although,  it  seems, 
with  great  repugnance.  A  few  weeks  after  his 
arrival,  two  men  were  shot  and  one  whipped,  for 
selling   brandy   to    Indians.^     An    extreme    though 

1  Journal  dcfs  Jesiiiies,  Octohre,  1661. 


1661-62]  THE  BRANDY   QUARREL.  181 

partially  suppressed  excitement  shook  the  entire 
settlement;  for  most  of  the  colonists  were,  in  one 
degree  or  another,  implicated  in  the  offence  thus 
punished.  An  explosion  soon  followed;  and  the 
occasion  of  it  was  the  humanity  or  good-nature  of 
the   Jesuit   Lalemant. 

A  woman  had  been  condemned  to  imprisonment 
for  the  same  cause,  and  Lalemant,  moved  by  compas- 
sion, came  to  the  governor  to  intercede  for  her. 
Avaugour  could  no  longer  contain  himself,  and 
answered  the  reverend  petitioner  with  characteristic 
bluntness.  "You  and  your  brethren  were  the  first 
to  cry  out  against  the  trade,  and  now  you  want  to 
save  the  traders  from  punishment.  I  will  no  longer 
be  the  sport  of  your  contradictions.  Since  it  is  not 
a  crime  for  this  woman,  it  shall  not  be  a  crime  for 
anybody."^  And  in  this  posture  he  stood  fast,  with 
an  inflexible  stubbornness. 

Henceforth  there  was  full  license  to  liquor-dealers. 
A  violent  reaction  ensued  against  the  past  restriction, 
and  brandy  flowed  freely  among  French  and  Indians 
alike.  The  ungodly  drank  to  spite  the  priests  and  re- 
venge themselves  for  the  "constraint  of  consciences," 
of  which  they  loudly  complained.  The  utmost  con- 
fusion followed,  and  the  principles  on  which  the  pious 
colony  was  built  seemed  upheaved  from  the  founda- 
tion. Laval  was  distracted  with  grief  and  anger. 
He  outpoured  himself  from  the  pulpit  in  threats  of 
divine  wrath,  and  launched  fresh  excommunications 

1  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  v. 


182  LAVAL  AND   AVAUGOUR.  [1662-63. 

against  the  offenders ;  but  such  was  the  popular  f ury 
that  he  was  forced  to  yield  and  revoke  them.i 

Disorder  grew  from  bad  to  worse.  "Men  gave 
no  heed  to  bishop,  preacher,  or  confessor,"  writes 
Father  Charlevoix.  "  The  French  have  despised  the 
remonstrances  of  our  prelate,  because  they  are  sup- 
ported by  the  civil  power,"  says  the  superior  of  the 
Ursulines.  "He  is  almost  dead  with  grief,  and 
pines  away  before  our  eyes." 

Laval  could  bear  it  no  longer,  but  sailed  for 
France,  to  lay  his  comj)laints  before  the  court,  and 
urge  the  removal  of  Avaugour.  He  had,  besides, 
two  other  important  objects,  as  will  appear  hereafter. 
His  absence  brought  no  improvement.  Summer  and 
autumn  passed,  and  the  commotion  did  not  abate. 
Winter  was  drawing  to  a  close,  when,  at  length, 
outraged  Heaven  interposed  an  awful  warning  to  the 
guilty  colony. 

Scarcely  had  the  bishop  left  his  flock  when  the 
skies  grew  portentous  with  signs  of  the  chastisement 
to  come.  "We  beheld,"  gravely  writes  Father 
Lalemant,  "blazing  serpents  which  flew  through  the 
air,  borne  on  wings  of  fire.  We  beheld  above  Quebec 
a  great  globe  of  flame,  which  lighted  up  the  night, 
and  threw  out  sparks  on  all  sides.  This  same  meteor 
appeared  above  Montreal,  where  it  seemed  to  issue 

^  Journal  des  Jemites,  F^vrier,  1662.  The  sentence  of  excom- 
munication is  printed  in  tlie  Appendix  to  the  Esquisse  de  la  Vie  de 
Laval.  It  bears  date  February  24.  It  was  on  this  very  day  that 
he  was  forced  to  revoke  it. 


1663.]  PORTENTS.  18S 

from  the  bosom  of  the  moon,  with  a  noise  as  loud  as 
cannon  or  thunder;  and  after  sailing  three  leagues 
through  the  air,  it  disappeared  behind  the  mountain 
whereof  this  island  bears  the  name."  ^ 

Still  greater  marvels  followed.  First,  a  Christian 
Algonquin  squaw,  described  as  "innocent,  simple, 
and  sincere,"  being  seated  erect  in  bed,  wide  awake, 
by  the  side  of  her  husband,  in  the  night  between  the 
fourth  and  fifth  of  February,  distinctly  heard  a 
voice  saying,  "Strange  things  will  happen  to-day; 
the  earth  will  quake!  "  In  great  alarm  she  whispered 
the  prodigy  to  her  husband,  who  told  her  that  she 
lied.  This  silenced  her  for  a  time;  but  when,  the 
next  morning,  she  went  into  the  forest  with  her 
hatchet  to  cut  a  fagot  of  wood,  the  same  dread 
voice  resounded  through  the  solitude,  and  sent  her 
back  in  terror  to  her  hut.^ 

These  things  were  as  nothing  compared  with  the 
marvel  that  befell  a  nun  of  the  hospital.  Mother 
Catherine  de  Saint-Augustin,  who  died  five  years 
later,  in  the  odor  of  sanctity.  On  the  night  of  the 
fourth  of  February,  1663,  she  beheld  in  the  spirit 
four  furious  demons  at  the  four  corners  of  Quebec, 
shaking  it  with  a  violence  which  plainly  showed  their 
purpose  of  reducing  it  to  ruins;  "and  this  they 
would  have  done,"  says  the  story,  "if  a  personage  of 
admirable  beauty  and  ravishing  majesty  [Christ], 
whom  she  saw  in  the  midst  of  them,  and  who  from 

1  Lalemant,  Relation,  1663,  2. 

2  Ihicl,  1663,  6. 


184  LAVAL   AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

time  to  time  gave  rein  to  their  fury,  had  not  restrained 
them  when  they  were  on  the  point  of  accomplishing 
their  wicked  design."  She  also  heard  the  conversa- 
tion of  these  demons,  to  the  effect  that  people  were 
now  well  frightened,  and  many  would  be  converted ; 
but  this  would  not  last  long,  and  they,  the  demons, 
would  have  them  in  time.  "Let  us  keep  on  shak- 
ing," they  cried,  encouraging  one  another,  "and  do 
our  best  to  upset  everything."  ^ 

Now,  to  pass  from  visions  to  facts :  "  At  half-past 
five  o'clock  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth,"  writes 
Father  Lalemant,  "  a  great  roaring  sound  was  heard 
at  the  same  time  through  the  whole  extent  of 
Canada.  This  sound,  which  produced  an  effect  as 
if  the  houses  were  on  fire,  brought  everybody  out  of 
doors;  but  instead  of  seeing  smoke  and  flame,  they 
were  amazed  to  behold  the  walls  shaking,  and  all  the 
stones  moving  as  if  they  would  drop  from  their 
places.  The  houses  seemed  to  bend  first  to  one  side 
and  then  to  the  other.  Bells  sounded  of  themselves; 
beams,  joists,  and  planks  cracked ;  the  ground  heaved, 
making  the  pickets  of  the  palisades  dance  in  a  way 
that  would  have  seemed  incredible  had  we  not  seen 
it  in  divers  places. 

"Everybody  was  in  the  streets;  animals  ran  wildly 
about;  children  cried;  men  and  women,  seized  with 

^  Ragueneau,  Vie  de  Catherine  de  St.  Augiistin,  liv.  iv.  chap.  i. 
The  same  story  is  told  by  Juchereau,  Lalemant,  and  Marie  de 
I'Lu.'arnation,  to  whom  Charlevoix  erroneously  ascribes  the  vision, 
as  does  also  the  Abbe  La  Tour. 


1663.]  THE  EARTHQUAKE.  185 

fright,  knew  not  where  to  take  refuge,  expecting 
every  moment  to  be  buried  under  the  ruins  of  the 
houses,  or  swallowed  up  in  some  abyss  opening  under 
their  feet.  Some,  on  their  knees  in  the  snow,  cried 
for  mercy,  and  others  passed  the  night  in  prayer;  for 
the  earthquake  continued  without  ceasing,  with  a 
motion  much  like  that  of  a  ship  at  sea,  insomuch  that 
sundry  persons  felt  the  same  qualms  of  stomach 
which  they  would  feel  on  the  water.  In  the  forests 
the  commotion  was  far  greater.  The  trees  struck 
one  against  the  other  as  if  there  were  a  battle  between 
them ;  and  you  would  have  said  that  not  only  their 
branches,  but  even  their  trunks,  started  out  of  their 
places  and  leaped  on  one  another  with  such  noise  and 
confusion  that  the  Indians  said  that  the  whole  forest 
was  drunk." 

Mary  of  the  Incarnation  gives  a  similar  account, 
as  does  also  Frances  Juchereau  de  Saint-Ignace ;  and 
these  contemporary  records  are  sustained  to  some 
extent  by  the  evidence  of  geology.  ^  A  remarkable 
effect  was  produced  on  the  St.  Lawrence,  which  was 
so  charged  with  mud  and  clay  that  for  many  weeks 
the  water  was  unfit  to  drink.  Considerable  hills  and 
large  tracts  of  forest  slid  from  their  places,  some  into 

1  Professor  Sterry  Hunt,  whose  intimate  knowledge  of  Canadian 
geology  is  well  known,  tells  me  that  the  shores  of  the  St.  Lawrence 
are  to  a  great  extent  formed  of  beds  of  gravel  and  clay  resting  on 
inclined  strata  of  rock,  so  that  earth-slides  would  be  the  necessary 
result  of  any  convulsion  like  that  of  10G3.  He  adds  that  the  evi- 
dence that  such  slides  have  taken  place  on  a  great  scale  is  very 
distinct  at  various  points  along  the  river,  especially  at  Les  Eboule- 
mens,  on  the  nortli  shore. 


186  LAVAL  AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

the  river,  and  some  into  adjacent  valleys.  A  number 
of  men  in  a  boat  near  Tadoussac  stared  aghast  at  a 
large  hill  covered  with  trees,  which  sank  into  the 
water  before  their  eyes;  streams  were  turned  from 
their  courses ;  water-falls  were  levelled ;  springs  were 
dried  up  in  some  places,  while  in  others  new  springs 
appeared.  Nevertheless,  the  accounts  that  have 
come  down  to  us  seem  a  little  exaggerated,  and  some- 
times ludicrously  so ;  as  when,  for  example,  Mother 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation  tells  us  of  a  man  who  ran 
all  night  to  escape  from  a  fissure  in  the  earth  which 
opened  behind  him  and  chased  him  as  he  fled. 

It  is  perhaps  needless  to  say  that  "spectres  and 
phantoms  of  fire,  bearing  torches  in  their  hands," 
took  part  in  the  convulsion.  "  The  fiery  figure  of  a 
man  vomiting  flames  "  also  appeared  in  the  air,  with 
many  other  apparitions  too  numerous  to  mention.  It 
is  recorded  that  three  young  men  were  on  their  way 
through  the  forest  to  sell  brandy  to  the  Indians, 
when  one  of  them,  a  little  in  advance  of  the  rest,  was 
met  by  a  hideous  spectre  which  nearly  killed  him 
with  fright.  He  had  scarcely  strength  enough  to 
rejoin  his  companions,  who,  seeing  his  terror,  began 
to  laugh  at  him.  One  of  them,  however,  presently 
came  to  his  senses,  and  said:  "This  is  no  laughing 
matter;  we  are  going  to  sell  liquor  to  the  Indians 
against  the  prohibitions  of  the  Church,  and  perhaps 
God  means  to  punish  our  disobedience."  On  this 
they  all  turned  back.  That  night  they  had  scarcely 
lain  down    to   sleep   when   the   earthquake    roused 


1663.]  AVAUGOUR  RECALLED.  187 

them,  and  they  ran  out  of  their  hut  just  in  time  to 
escape  being  swallowed  up  along  with  it.^ 

With  every  allowance,  it  is  clear  that  the  convul- 
sion must  have  been  a  severe  one,  and  it  is  remark- 
able that  in  all  Canada  not  a  life  was  lost.  The 
writers  of  the  day  see  in  this  a  proof  that  God  meant 
to  reclaim  the  guilty  and  not  destroy  them.  At 
Quebec  there  was  for  the  time  an  intense  revival  of 
religion.  The  end  of  the  world  was  thought  to  be 
at  hand,  and  everybody  made  ready  for  the  last  judg- 
ment. Repentant  throngs  beset  confessionals  and 
altars;  enemies  were  reconciled;  fasts,  prayers,  and 
penances  filled  the  whole  season  of  Lent.  Yet,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  Devil  could  still  find  wherewith  to 
console  himself. 

It  was  midsummer  before  the  shocks  wholly  ceased 
and  the  earth  resumed  her  wonted  calm.  An  extreme 
drought  was  followed  by  floods  of  rain,  and  then 
Nature  began  her  sure  work  of  reparation.  It  was 
about  this  time  that  the  thorn  which  had  plagued  the 
Church  was  at  length  plucked  out.  Avaugour  was 
summoned  home.  He  took  his  recall  with  magna- 
nimit}',  and  on  his  way  wrote  at  Gasp6  a  memorial  to 
Colbert,  in  which  he  commends  New  France  to  the 
attention  of  the  King.  "The  St.  Lawrence,"  he 
says,    "is  the  entrance  to   what  may  be   made  the 

1  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettre  du  20  Aout,  1063.  It  appears 
from  Morton,  Josselyn,  and  other  writers,  that  the  earthquake 
extended  to  New  England  and  New  Netherlands,  producing  similar 
effects  on  the  imagination  of  the  people. 


188  LAVAL   AND  AVAUGOUR.  [1663. 

greatest  state  in  the  world ;  "  and,  in  his  purely  mili- 
tary way,  he  recounts  the  means  of  realizing  this 
grand  possibility.  Three  thousand  soldiers  should 
be  sent  to  the  colony,  to  be  discharged  and  turned 
into  settlers  after  three  years  of  service.  During 
these  three  years  they  may  make  Quebec  an  impreg- 
nable fortress,  subdue  the  Iroquois,  build  a  strong 
fort  on  the  river  where  the  Dutch  have  a  miserable 
wooden  redoubt,  called  Fort  Orange  (Albany),  and 
finally  open  a  way  by  that  river  to  the  sea.  Thus 
the  heretics  will  be  driven  out,  and  the  King  will  be 
master  of  America,  at  a  total  cost  of  about  four  hun- 
dred thousand  francs  yearly  for  ten  years.  He  closes 
his  memorial  by  a  short  allusion  to  the  charges 
against  him,  and  to  his  forty  years  of  faithful  service ; 
and  concludes,  speaking  of  the  authors  of  his  recall, 
Laval  and  the  Jesuits :  "  By  reason  of  the  respect  I 
owe  their  cloth,  I  will  rest  content,  Monseigneur, 
with  assuring  you  that  I  have  not  only  served  the 
King  with  fidelity,  but  also,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
with  very  good  success,  considering  the  means  at  my 
disposal."  1  He  had,  in  truth,  borne  himself  as  a 
brave  and  experienced  soldier;  and  he  soon  after 
died  a  soldier's  death,  while  defending  the  fortress 
of  Zrin,  in  Croatia,  against  the  Turks. ^ 

^  Avaugour,  Memoire,  Gasp^,  4  Ao{it,  1663. 

2  Lettre  de  Colbert  aa  Marquis  de   True;/,  1664.     Memoire  du  Roy, 
pour  servir  d' instruction  au  Sieur  Talon. 


CHAPTER  X. 

1661-1664. 

LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL. 

Peronne  Dumesnii,.  —  The  Old  Council.  —  Alleged  Murder.  — 
The  New  Council.  —  Bourdon  and  Villeray.  —  Strong  Meas- 
ures. —  Escape  of  Dumesnil.  —  Views  of  Colbert. 

Though  the  proposals  of  Avaugour's  memorial 
were  not  adopted,  it  seems  to  have  produced  a  strong 
impression  at  court.  For  this  impression  the  minds 
of  the  King  and  his  minister  had  already  been  pre- 
pared. Two  years  before,  the  inhabitants  of  Canada 
had  sent  one  of  their  number,  Pierre  Boucher,  to 
represent  their  many  grievances  and  ask  for  aid.^ 
Boucher  had  had  an  audience  of  the  young  King, 
who  listened  with  interest  to  his  statements;  and 
when  in  the  following  year  he  returned  to  Quebec, 
he  was  accompanied  by  an  officer  named  Dumont, 
who  had  under  his  command  a  hundred  soldiers  for 
the  colony,  and  was  commissioned  to  report  its  con- 

^  To  promote  the  objects  of  his  mission,  Boucher  wrote  a  little 
book,  Histoire  Veritable  et  Naturelle  des  Moeurs  et  Productions  du 
Pays  de  la  Nouvelle  France.     He  dedicates  it  to  Colbert. 


190  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1660-63. 

dition  and  resources. ^  The  movement  seemed  to 
betoken  that  the  government  was  wakening  at  last 
from  its  long  inaction. 

Meanwhile  the  Company  of  New  France,  feudal 
lord  of  Canada,  had  also  shown  signs  of  returning 
life.  Its  whole  history  had  been  one  of  mishap, 
followed  by  discouragement  and  apathy;  and  it  is 
difficult  to  say  whether  its  ownership  of  Canada  had 
been  more  hurtful  to  itself  or  to  the  colony.  At  the 
eleventh  hour  it  sent  out  an  agent  invested  with 
powers  of  controller-general,  intendant,  and  supreme 
judge,  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  its  affairs.  This 
agent,  Pdronne  Dumesnil,  arrived  early  in  the 
autumn  of  1660,  and  set  himself  with  great  vigor  to 
his  work.  He  was  an  advocate  of  the  Parliament  of 
Paris,  an  active,  aggressive,  and  tenacious  person,  of 
a  temper  well  fitted  to  rip  up  an  old  abuse  or  probe 
a  delinquency  to  the  bottom.  His  proceedings 
quickly  raised  a  storm  at  Quebec. 

It  may  be  remembered  that,  many  years  before, 
the  company  had  ceded  its  monopoly  of  the  fur-trade 
to  the  inhabitants  of  the  colony,  in  consideration  of 
that  annual  payment  in  beaver-skins  which  had  been 
so  tardily  and  so  rarely  made.  The  direction  of  the 
trade  liad  at  that  time  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  a 
council  composed  of  the  governor,  the  superior  of 
the  Jesuits,  and  several  other  members.  Various 
changes  had  since  taken  place,   and  the  trade  was 

1  A  long  journal  of  Dumont  is  printed  anonymously  in  the 
Relation  of  1663, 


1660-63.]  MONOPOLISTS.  191 

now  controlled  by  another  council,  established  with- 
out the  consent  of  the  company,  ^  and  composed  of 
the  principal  persons  in  the  colony.  The  members 
of  this  council,  with  certain  prominent  merchants  in 
league  with  them,  engrossed  all  the  trade,  so  that 
the  inhabitants  at  large  profited  nothing  by  the  right 
which  the  company  had  ceded  ;2  and  as  the  council- 
lors controlled  not  only  the  trade,  but  all  the  financial 
affairs  of  Canada,  while  the  remoteness  of  their  scene 
of  operations  made  it  difficult  to  supervise  them, 
they  were  able,  with  little  risk,  to  pursue  their  own 
profit,  to  the  detriment  both  of  the  company  and  the 
colony.  They  and  their  allies  formed  a  petty  trading 
oligarchy,  as  pernicious  to  the  prosperity  of  Canada 
as  the  Iroquois  war  itself. 

The  company,  always  anxious  for  its  beaver-skins, 
made  several  attempts  to  control  the  proceedings  of 
the  councillors  and  call  them  to  account,  but  with 
little  success,  till  the  vigorous  Dumesnil  undertook 
the  task;  when,  to  their  wrath  and  consternation, 
they  and  their  friends  found  themselves  attacked  by 
wholesale  accusations  of  fraud  and  embezzlement. 
That  these  charges  were  exaggerated  there  can  be 
little  doubt;  that  they  were  unfounded  is  incredible, 
in  view  of  the  effect  they  produced. 

The  councillors  refused  to  acknowledge  Dumesnil's 

1  Registres  du   Conseil  du  Roy ;  Reponse  d  la  reqneste  presenile  au 
Roy. 

*  Arret  du  Conseil  d'Etat,  7  Mars,  1657.  Also  Papiers  d'Argen- 
son,  and  Extrait  des  Registres  du  Conseil  d'Etat,  15  Mars,  1656. 


192  LAVAL   AND   DUMESNIL.  [166L 

powers  as  controller,  intendant,  and  judge,  and 
declared  his  proceedings  null.  He  retorted  by  char- 
ging them  with  usurpation.  The  excitement  in- 
creased, and  Dumesnil's  life  was  threatened. 

He  had  two  sons  in  the  colony.  One  of  them, 
P^ronne  de  Maz^,  was  secretary  to  Avaugour,  then 
on  his  way  up  the  St.  Lawrence  to  assume  the 
government.  The  other,  Pdronne  des  Touches,  was 
with  his  father  at  Quebec.  Towards  the  end  of 
August  this  young  man  was  attacked  in  the  street  in 
broad  daylight,  and  received  a  kick  which  proved 
fatal.  He  was  carried  to  his  father's  house,  where 
he  died  on  the  twenty-ninth.  Dumesnil  charges 
four  persons,  all  of  whom  were  among  those  into 
whose  affairs  he  had  been  prying,  with  having  taken 
part  in  the  outrage;  but  it  is  very  uncertain  who 
was  the  immediate  cause  of  Des  Touches's  death. 
Dumesnil,  himself  the  supreme  judicial  officer  of  the 
colony,  made  complaint  to  the  judge  in  ordinary  of 
the  company;  but  he  says  that  justice  was  refused, 
the  complaint  suppressed  by  authority,  his  allegations 
torn  in  pieces,  and  the  whole  affair  hushed. ^ 

At  the  time  of  the  murder,  Dumesnil  was  confined 


1  Dumesnil,  Memoire.  Under  date  August  31  the  Journal  des 
Jesuites  makes  this  brief  and  guarded  mention  of  the  affair :  "  Le 
fils  de  Mons.  du  Mesnil  .  .  .  fut  enterre  le  mesme  lour,  tue  d'vn 
coup  de  pie  par  N."  Who  is  meant  by  N.  it  is  difficult  to  say. 
Tlie  register  of  the  parish  church  records  the  burial  as  follows :  — 

"  L'an  1601.  Le  30  Aoust  a  este  enterre  au  Cemetiere  de  Quebec 
Michel  peronne  dit  Sr.  des  Touches  fils  de  Mr.  du  Mesnil  decede 
le  Jour  precedent  a  sa  Maison." 


1662-63.]  THE   NEW   GOVERNMENT.  193 

to  his  house  by  iUness.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
rouse  the  mob  against  him,  by  reports  that  he  had 
come  to  the  colony  for  the  purpose  of  laying  taxes ; 
but  he  sent  for  some  of  the  excited  inhabitants,  and 
succeeded  in  convincing  them  that  he  was  their 
champion  rather  than  their  enemy.  Some  Indians 
in  the  neighborhood  were  also  instigated  to  kill  him, 
and  he  was  forced  to  conciliate  them  by  presents. 

He  soon  renewed  his  attacks,  and  in  his  quality  of 
intendant  called  on  the  councillors  and  their  allies  to 
render  their  accounts,  and  settle  the  long  arrears  of 
debt  due  to  the  company.  They  set  his  demands  at 
naught.  The  war  continued  month  after  month. 
It  is  more  than  likely  that  when  in  the  spring  of 
1662  Avaugour  dissolved  and  reconstructed  the 
council,  his  action  had  reference  to  these  disputes; 
and  it  is  clear  that  when  in  the  following  August 
Laval  sailed  for  France,  one  of  his  objects  was  to 
restore  the  tranquillity  which  Dumesnil's  proceed- 
ings had  disturbed.  There  was  great  need;  for, 
what  with  these  proceedings  and  the  quarrel  about 
brandy,  Quebec  was  a  little  hell  of  discord,  the  earth- 
quake not  having  as  yet  frightened  it  into  propriety. 

The  bishop's  success  at  court  was  triumphant. 
Not  only  did  he  procure  the  removal  of  Avaugour, 
but  he  was  invited  to  choose  a  new  governor  to 
replace  him."*  This  was  not  all;  for  he  succeeded 
in  effecting  a  complete  change  in  the  government  of 
the  colony.     The  Company  of  New  France  was  called 

1  La  Tour,  Vie.  de  Laval,  liv.  v. 

VOL.  I.  —  13 


194  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

upon  to  resign  its  claims ;  ^  and  by  a  royal  edict  of 
April,  1663,  all  power,  legislative,  judicial,  and 
executive,  was  vested  in  a  council  composed  of  the 
governor  whom  Laval  had  chosen,  of  Laval  himself, 
and  of  five  councillors,  an  attorney-general,  and  a 
secretary,  to  be  chosen  by  Laval  and  the  governor 
jointly. 2  Bearing  with  them  blank  commissions  to 
be  filled  with  the  names  of  the  new  functionaries, 
Laval  and  his  governor  sailed  for  Quebec,  where  they 
landed  on  the  fifteenth  of  September.  With  them 
came  one  Gaudais-Dupont,  a  royal  commissioner 
instructed  to  inquire  into  the  state  of  the  colony. 

No  sooner  had  they  arrived  than  Laval  and  Mezy, 
the  new  governor,  proceeded  to  construct  the  new 
council.  Mdzy  knew  nobody  in  the  colony,  and  was, 
at  this  time,  completely  under  Laval's  influence. 
The  nominations,  therefore,  were  virtually  made  by 
the  bishop  alone,  in  whose  hands,  and  not  in  those  of 
the  governor,  the  blank  commissions  had  been 
placed.^  Thus  for  the  moment  he  had  complete  con- 
trol of  the  government;  that  is  to  say,  the  Church 
was  mistress  of  the  civil  power. 

1  See  the  deliberations  and  acts  to  this  end  in  Edits  et  Ordon- 
nances  concernant  le  Canada,  i.  30-32. 

2  Edit  de  Creation  du  Conseil  Superieur  de  Quebec. 

^  Commission  actroyee  au  Sieur  Gaudais.  Memoire  pour  servir 
d' Instruction  au  Sieur  Gaudais.  A  sequel  to  these  instructions,  marked 
"  secret,"  shows  that,  notwithstanding  Laval's  extraordinary  success 
in  attaining  his  objects,  he  and  the  Jesuits  were  somewhat  dis- 
trusted. Gaudais  is  directed  to  make,  with  great  discretion  and 
caution,  careful  inquiry  into  the  bishop's  conduct,  and  with  equal 
secrecy  to  ascertain  why  the  Jesuits  liad  asked  for  Avaugour's 
recall. 


1663.]  THE  COUNCIL.  195 

Laval  formed  his  council  as  follows :  Jean  Bourdon 
for  attorney-general;  Rouer  de  Villeray,  Juchereau 
de  la  Fert^,  Ruette  d'Auteuil,  Le  Gardeur  de  Tilly, 
and  Matthieu  D' Amours  for  councillors;  and  Peuvret 
de  Mesnu  for  secretary.  The  royal  commissioner, 
Gaudais,  also  took  a  prominent  place  at  the  board.  ^ 
This  functionary  was  on  the  point  of  marrying  his 
niece  to  a  son  of  Robert  Giffard,  who  had  a  strong 
interest  in  suppressing  Dumesnil's  accusations. ^ 
Dumesnil  had  laid  his  statements  before  the  commis- 
sioner, who  quickly  rejected  them,  and  took  part 
with  the  accused. 

Of  those  appointed  to  the  new  council,  their  enemy 
Dumesnil  says  that  they  were  "incapable  persons;" 
and  their  associate  Gaudais,  in  defending  them 
against  worse  charges,  declares  that  they  were 
"unlettered,  of  little  experience,  and  nearly  all 
unable  to  deal  with  affairs  of  importance."  This 
was,  perhaps,  unavoidable;  for  except  among  the 
ecclesiastics,  education  was  then  scarcely  known  in 
Canada.     But  if  Laval  may  be  excused  for  putting 

1  As  substitute  for  the  intendant,  an  oflScer  who  had  been  ap- 
pointed but  who  had  not  arrived. 

2  Dumesnil  here  makes  one  of  the  few  mistakes  I  have  been  able 
to  detect  in  his  long  memorials.  He  says  that  the  name  of  the 
niece  of  Gaudais  was  Marie  Nau.  It  was,  in  fact,  Michelle-Therese 
Nau,  who  married  Joseph,  son  of  Robert  Giffard,  on  the  22d  of 
October,  1063.  Dumesnil  had  forgotten  the  bride's  first  name. 
The  elder  Giffard  was  surety  for  Repentigny,  whom  Dumesnil 
charged  with  liabilities  to  the  company,  amounting  to  644,700 
livres.  Giffard  was  also  father-in-law  of  Juchereau  de  la  Ferte, 
one  of  the  accused. 


196  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

incompetent  men  in  office,  nothing  can  excuse  him 
for  making  men  charged  with  gross  public  offences 
the  prosecutors  and  judges  in  their  own  cause;  and 
his  course  in  doing  so  gives  color  to  the  assertion  of 
Dumesnil  that  he  made  up  the  council  expressly  to 
shield  the  accused  and  smother  the  accusation. ^ 

The  two  persons  under  the  heaviest  charges 
received  the  two  most  important  appointments,  — 
Bourdon,  attorney-general;  and  Villeray,  keeper  of 
the  seals.  La  Fert^  was  also  one  of  the  accused. ^ 
Of  Villeray,  the  governor  Argenson  had  written  in 
1659 :  "  Some  of  his  qualities  are  good  enough,  but 
confidence  cannot  be  placed  in  him  on  account  of  his 
instability."^  In  the  same  year  he  had  been  ordered 
to  France,  "  to  purge  himself  of  sundry  crimes  where- 


1  Dumesnil  goes  further  than  this,  for  he  plainly  intimates  that 
the  removing  from  power  of  the  company,  to  whom  the  accused 
were  responsible,  and  the  placing  in  power  of  a  council  formed  of 
the  accused  themselves,  was  a  device  contrived  from  the  first  by 
Laval  and  the  Jesuits  to  get   their  friends  out  of  trouble. 

2  Bourdon  is  charged  with  not  having  accounted  for  an  immense 
quantity  of  beaver-skins  which  had  passed  through  his  hands 
during  twelve  years  or  more,  and  which  are  valued  at  more  than 
300,000  livres.  Other  charges  are  made  against  him  in  connection 
with  large  sums  borrowed  in  Lauson's  time  on  account  of  the 
colony.  In  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  King  in  council,  Dumesnil 
says  that  in  1662  Bourdon,  according  to  his  own  accounts,  had  in 
his  hands  37,516  livres  belonging  to  the  company,  which  he  still 
retained. 

Villeray's  liabilities  arose  out  of  the  unsettled  accounts  of  his 
father-in-law,  Charles  Sevestre,  and  are  set  down  at  more  than 
600,000  livres.  La  Ferte's  are  of  a  smaller  amount.  Others  of  the 
council  were  indirectly  involved  in  the  charges. 

^  Lettre  d' Argenson ,  20  Nor.,  16,59. 


1663.]  VILLERAY  AND  BOURDON.  197 

with  he  stands  charged."^  He  was  not  yet  free  of 
suspicion,  having  returned  to  Canada  under  an  order 
to  make  up  and  render  his  accounts,  which  he  had 
not  yet  done.  Dumesnil  says  that  he  first  came  to 
the  colony  in  1651,  as  valet  of  the  governor  Lauson, 
who  had  taken  him  from  the  jail  at  Rochelle,  where 
he  was  imprisoned  for  a  debt  of  seventy-one  francs, 
"as  appears  by  the  record  of  the  jail  of  date  July 
eleventh  in  that  year."  From  this  modest  beginning 
he  became  in  time  the  richest  man  in  Canada. ^  He 
was  strong  in  orthodoxy,  and  an  ardent  supporter  of 
the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits.  He  is  alternately  praised 
and  blamed,  according  to  the  partisan  leanings  of  the 
writer. 

Bourdon,  though  of  humble  origin,  was,  perhaps, 
the  most  intelligent  man  in  the  council.  He  was 
chiefly  known  as  an  engineer,  but  he  had  also  been  a 
baker,  a  painter,  a  syndic  of  the  inhabitants,  chief 
gunner  at  the  fort,  and  collector  of  customs  for  the 
company.  Whether  guilty  of  embezzlement  or  not, 
he  was  a  zealous  devotee,  and  would  probably  have 
died  for  his  creed.  Like  Villeray,  he  was  one  of 
Laval's  stanchest  supporters,  while  the  rest  of  the 
council  were  also  sound  in  doctrine  and  sure  in 
allegiance. 

In  virtue  of  their  new  dignity,  the  accused  now 
claimed  exemption  from  accountability ;  but  this  was 
not  all.     The  abandonment  of  Canada  by  the  com- 

1  Edit  du  Ron,  13  Mai,  1659. 

2  Lettre  de  Colbert  a  Frontenac,  17  Mai,  1674. 


198  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

pany,  in  leaving  Dumesnil  without  support,  and 
depriving  him  of  official  character,  had  made  his 
charges  far  less  dangerous.  Nevertheless,  it  was 
thought  best  to  suppress  them  altogether,  and  the 
first  act  of  the  new  government  was  to  this  end. 

On  the  twentieth  of  September,  the  second  day 
after  the  establishment  of  the  council,  Bourdon,  in 
his  character  of  attorney-general,  rose  and  demanded 
that  the  papers  of  Jean  Pt^ronne  Dumesnil  should  be 
seized  and  sequestered.  The  council  consented ;  and, 
to  comj)lete  the  scandal,  Villeray  was  commissioned 
to  make  the  seizure  in  the  presence  of  Bourdon.  To 
color  the  proceeding,  it  was  alleged  that  Dumesnil 
had  obtained  certain  papers  unlawfully  from  the 
greffe^  or  record  office.  "As  he  was  thought,"  says 
Gaudais,  "to  be  a  violent  man,"  Bourdon  and  Villeray 
took  with  them  ten  soldiers,  well  armed,  together 
with  a  locksmith  and  the  secretary  of  the  council. 
Thus  prepared  for  every  contingency,  they  set  out 
on  their  errand,  and  appeared  suddenly  at  Dumesnil's 
house  between  seven  and  eight  o'clock  in  the  even- 
ing. " The  aforesaid  Sieur  Dumesnil,"  further  says 
Gaudais,  "did  not  refute  the  opinion  entertained  of 
his  violence;  for  he  made  a  great  noise,  shouted 
rollers !  and  tried  to  rouse  the  neighborhood,  out- 
rageously abusing  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de  Villeray 
and  the  attorney-general,  in  great  contempt  of  the 
authority  of  the  council,  which  he  even  refused  to 
recognize." 

They  tried  to  silence  him  by  threats,  but  without 


1663.]  DESIGNS  OF  THE   COUNCIL.  199 

effect;  upon  which  they  seized  him  and  held  him 
fast  in  a  chair, —  "  me,"  writes  the  wrathful  Dumesnil, 
"who  had  lately  been  their  judge."  The  soldiers 
stood  over  him  and  stopped  his  mouth,  while  the 
others  broke  open  and  ransacked  his  cabinet,  drawers, 
and  chest,  from  which  they  took  all  his  papers, 
refusing  to  give  him  an  inventory,  or  to  permit 
any  witness  to  enter  the  house.  Some  of  these 
papers  were  private;  among  the  rest  were,  he  says, 
the  charges  and  specifications,  nearly  finished,  for  the 
trial  of  Bourdon  and  Villeray,  together  with  the 
proofs  of  their  "peculations,  extortions,  and  malver- 
sations." The  papers  were  enclosed  under  seal,  and 
deposited  in  a  neighboring  house,  whence  they  were 
afterwards  removed  to  the  council-chamber,  and 
Dumesnil  never  saw  them  again.  It  may  well  be 
believed  that  this,  the  inaugural  act  of  the  new 
council,  was  not  allowed  to  appear  on  its  records.  ^ 

On  the  twenty-first,  Villeray  made  a  formal  report 
of  the  seizure  to  his  colleagues ;  upon  which,  "  by  rea- 
son of  the  insults,  violences,  and  irreverences  therein 
set  forth  against  the  aforesaid  Sieur  de  Villeray,  com- 
missioner, as  also  against  the  authority  of  the 
council,"  it  was  ordered  that  the  offending  Dumesnil 
should  be  put  under  arrest;  but  Gaudais,  as  he 
declares,  prevented  the  order  from  being  carried  into 
effect. 

1  The  above  is  drawn  from  the  two  memorials  of  Gaudais  and  of 
Dumesnil.  They  do  not  contradict  each  other  as  to  the  essential 
facts. 


200  LAVAL  AND  DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

Duniesnil,  who  says  that  during  the  scene  at  his 
house  he  had  expected  to  be  murdered  like  his  son, 
now,  though  unsupported  and  alone,  returned  to  the 
attack,  demanded  his  papers,  and  was  so  loud  in 
threats  of  complaint  to  the  King  that  the  council 
were  seriously  alarmed.  They  again  decreed  his 
arrest  and  imprisonment,  but  resolved  to  keep  the 
decree  secret  till  the  morning  of  the  day  when  the 
last  of  the  returning  ships  was  to  sail  for  France. 
In  this  ship  Dumesnil  had  taken  his  passage,  and 
they  proposed  to  arrest  him  unexpectedly  on  the 
point  of  embarkation,  that  he  might  have  no  time  to 
prepare  and  despatch  a  memorial  to  the  court.  Thus 
a  full  year  must  elapse  before  his  complaints  could 
reach  the  minister,  and  seven  or  eight  months  more 
before  a  reply  could  be  returned  to  Canada.  During 
this  long  delay  the  affair  would  have  time  to  cool. 
Dumesnil  received  a  secret  warning  of  this  plan,  and 
accordingly  went  on  board  another  vessel,  which  was 
to  sail  immediately.  The  council  caused  the  six 
cannon  of  the  battery  in  the  Lower  Town  to  be 
pointed  at  her,  and  threatened  to  sink  her  if  she  left 
the  harbor;  but  she  disregarded  them,  and  proceeded 
on  her  way. 

On  reaching  France,  Dumesnil  contrived  to  draw 
the  attention  of  the  minister  Colbert  to  his  accusa- 
tions, and  to  the  treatment  they  had  brought  upon 
him.  On  this  Colbert  demanded  of  Gaudais,  who 
had  also  returned  in  one  of  the  autumn  ships,  why 
he  had  not  reported  these  matters  to  him.     Gaudais 


1663.]  CHARGES  OF   DUMESNIL.  201 

made  a  lame  attempt  to  explain  his  silence,  gave  his 
statement  of  the  seizure  of  the  papers,  answered  in 
vague  terms  some  of  Dumesnil's  charges  against  the 
Canadian  financiers,  and  said  that  he  had  nothing  to 
do  with  the  rest.  In  the  following  spring  Colbert 
wrote  as  follows  to  his  relative  Terron,  intendant  of 
marine :  — 

"  I  do  not  know  what  report  M.  Gaudais  has  made 
to  you,  but  family  interests  and  the  connections 
which  he  has  at  Quebec  should  cause  him  to  be  a 
little  distrusted.  On  his  arrival  in  that  country, 
having  constituted  himself  chief  of  the  council,  he 
despoiled  an  agent  of  the  Company  of  Canada  of  all 
his  papers,  in  a  manner  very  violent  and  extraordi- 
nary ;  and  this  proceeding  leaves  no  doubt  whatever 
that  these  papers  contained  matters  the  knowledge  of 
which  it  was  wished  absolutely  to  suppress.  I  think 
it  will  be  very  proper  that  you  should  be  informed  of 
the  statements  made  by  this  agent,  in  order  that, 
through  him,  an  exact  knowledge  may  be  acquired  of 
everything  that  has  taken  place  in  the  management 
of  affairs."^ 

Whether  Terron  pursued  the  inquir}^  does  not 
appear.     Meanwhile    new    quarrels    had    arisen    at 

1  Lettre  de  Colbert  a  Terron  RocheUe,  8  Fev.,  1664.  "  II  a  spolie 
un  agent  de  la  Compagnie  de  Canada  de  tons  ses  papiers  d'une 
maniere  fort  violente  et  extraordinaire,  et  ce  proce'dene  laisse  point 
a  douter  que  dans  ces  papiers  il  n'y  eiit  des  choses  dont  on  a  voulu 
absolument  supprimer  la  connaissance."  Colbert  seems  to  have 
received  an  exaggerated  impression  of  the  part  borne  by  Gaudais 
in  the  seizure  of  the  papers. 


202  LAVAL  AND   DUMESNIL.  [1663. 

Quebec,  and  the  questions  of  the  past  were  obscured 
in  the  dust  of  fresh  commotions.  Nothing  is  more 
noticeable  in  the  whole  history  of  Canada,  after  it 
came  under  the  direct  control  of  the  Crown,  than  the 
helpless  manner  in  which  this  absolute  government 
was  forced  to  overlook  and  ignore  the  disobedience 
and  rascality  of  its  functionaries  in  this  distant 
transatlantic  dependency. 

As  regards  Dumesnil's  charges,  the  truth  seems  to 
be,  that  the  financial  managers  of  the  colony,  being 
ignorant  and  unpractised,  had  kept  imperfect  and 
confused  accounts,  wliich  they  themselves  could  not 
always  unravel;  and  that  some,  if  not  all  of  them, 
had  made  illicit  profits  under  cover  of  this  confusion. 
That  their  stealings  approached  the  enormous  sum 
at  which  Dumesnil  places  them  is  not  to  be  believed. 
But,  even  on  the  grossly  improbable  assumption  of 
their  entire  innocence,  there  can  be  no  apology  for 
the  means,  subversive  of  all  justice,  by  which  Laval 
enabled  his  partisans  and  supporters  to  extricate 
themselves  from  embarrassment. 

Note.  —  Dumesnil's  principal  memorial,  preserved  in  the  ar- 
chives of  the  Marine  and  Colonies,  is  entitled  Memoire  concernant  les 
Affaires  du  Canada,  qui  montre  etfait  voir  que  sous  pretexte  de  la 
Gloire  de  Dieu,  d' Instruction  des  Sauvages,  de  servir  le  Roy  et  dejaire 
la  nouvelle  Colonie,  il  a  et€  pris  et  diverti  trois  millions  de  livres  ou 
environ.  It  forms  in  tlie  copy  before  me  thirty-eight  pages  of 
manuscript,  and  bears  no  address,  but  seems  meant  for  Colbert,  or 
the  coimcil  of  state.  There  is  a  second  memorial,  which  is  little 
else  than  an  abridgment  of  the  first.  A  third,  bearing  the  address 
Au  Roy  et  a  nos  Seigneurs  du  Conseil  (d'Etat),  and  signed  Peronne 
Dumesnil,  is  a  petition  for  the  payment  of  10,132  livres  due  to  him 


1663.]     DUMESNIL'S   PRINCIPAL   MEMORIAL.         203 

by  the  company  for  his  services  in  Canada,  "  ou  11  a  perdu  sou  fils 
assassine  par  les  comptables  du  dit  pays,  qui  n'ont  voulu  rendre 
compte  au  dit  suppliant,  Intendant,  et  ont  pille  sa  maison,  ses 
meubles  et  papiers  le  20  du  mois  de  Septembre  dernier,  dont  il  y 
a  acte." 

Gaudais,  in  compliance  with  the  demands  of  Colbert,  gives  his 
statement  in  a  long  memorial,  Le  Sieur  Gaudais  Dupont  a  Monsei- 
gneur  de  Colbert,  1664. 

Dumesnil,  in  his  principal  memorial,  gives  a  list  of  the  alleged 
defaulters,  with  the  special  charges  against  each,  and  the  amounts 
for  which  he  reckons  them  liable.  The  accusations  cover  a  period 
of  ten  or  twelve  years,  and  sometimes  more.  Some  of  them  are 
curiously  suggestive  of  more  recent  "  rings."  Thus  Jean  Gloria 
makes  a  charge  of  thirty-one  hundred  livres  (francs)  for  fireworks 
to  celebrate  the  King's  marriage,  when  the  actual  cost  is  said  to 
have  been  about  forty  livres.  Others  are  alleged  to  have  embezzled 
the  fimds  of  tlie  company,  under  cover  of  pretended  pa_vments  to 
imaginary  creditors ;  and  Argenson  himself  is  said  to  have  eked 
out  his  miserable  salary  by  drawing  on  the  company  for  the  pay  of 
soldiers  who  did  not  exist. 

The  records  of  the  Council  preserve  a  guarded  silence  about 
this  affair.  I  find,  however,  under  date  20  Sept.,  1663,  "  Pouvoir  h, 
M.  de  Villeray  de  faire  recherche  dans  la  maison  d'un  nomine  du 
Mesnil  des  papiers  appartenants  au  Conseil  concernant  Sa  Ma- 
jeste ; "  and  under  date  18  March,  1664,  "  Ordre  pour  I'ouverture  du 
coffre  contenant  les  papiers  de  Dumesnil,"  and  also  an  "  Ordre 
pour  mettre  ITnventaire  des  biens  du  Sr.  Dumesnil  entre  les  mains 
du  Sr.  Fillion." 


CHAPTER  XI. 

1657-1665. 

LAVAL  ANDM]feZY. 

The  Bishop's  Choice.  —  A  Military  Zealot.  —  Hopeful  Begin- 
nings. —  Signs  of  Storm.  —  The  Quarrel.  —Distress  of  Mezy  : 
HE  Refuses  to  Yield  ;  his  Defeat  and  Death. 

We  have  seen  that  Laval,  when  at  court,  had 
been  invited  to  choose  a  governor  to  his  liking.  He 
soon  made  his  selection.  There  was  a  pious  officer, 
Saffray  de  Mdzy,  major  of  the  town  and  citadel  of 
Caen,  whom  he  had  well  known  during  his  long 
stay  with  Berni^res  at  the  Hermitage.  M^zy  was  the 
principal  member  of  the  company  of  devotees  formed 
at  Caen  under  the  influence  of  Bernieres  and  his 
disciples.  In  his  youth  he  had  been  headstrong  and 
dissolute.  Worse  still,  he  had  been,  it  is  said,  a 
Huguenot;  but  both  in  life  and  doctrine  his  conver- 
sion had  been  complete,  and  the  fervid  mysticism  of 
Bernieres  acting  on  his  vehement  nature  had  trans- 
formed him  into  a  red-hot  zealot.  Towards  the 
hermits  and  their  chief  he  showed  a  docility  in 
Btrange  contrast  with  his  past  history,  and  followed 


1657-59.]  A  MILITARY   ZEALOT.  205 

their  inspirations  with  an  ardor  which  sometimes 
overleaped  its  mark. 

Thus  a  Jacobin  monk,  a  doctor  of  divinity,  once 
came  to  preach  at  the  church  of  St.  Paul  at  Caen; 
on  which,  according  to  their  custom,  the  brotherhood 
of  the  Hermitage  sent  two  persons  to  make  report 
concerning  his  orthodoxy.  M^zy  and  another  mili- 
tary zealot,  "who,"  says  the  narrator,  "hardly 
know  how  to  read,  and  assuredly  do  not  know  their 
catechism,"  were  deputed  to  hear  his  first  sermon; 
wherein  this  Jacobin,  having  spoken  of  the  necessity 
of  the  grace  of  Jesus  Christ  in  order  to  the  doing  of 
good  deeds,  these  two  wiseacres  thought  that  he 
was  preaching  Jansenism;  and  thereupon,  after  the 
sermon,  the  Sieur  de  M^zy  went  to  the  proctor  of 
the  ecclesiastical  court  and  denounced  him."i 

His  zeal,  though  but  moderately  tempered  with 
knowledge,  sometimes  proved  more  useful  than  on 
this  occasion.  The  Jacobin  convent  at  Caen  was 
divided  against  itself.  Some  of  the  monks  had 
embraced  the  doctrines  taught  by  Bernieres,  while 
the  rest  held  dogmas  which  he  declared  to  be 
contrary  to  those  of  the  Jesuits,  and  therefore 
heterodox.  A  prior  was  to  be  elected,  and  with  the 
help  of  Bernieres  his  partisans  gained  the  victory, 
choosing  one  Father  Louis,  through  whom  the 
Hermitage  gained  a  complete  control  in  the  convent. 
But  the  adverse  party  presently  resisted,  and  com- 

1  Nicole,  Memoire  pour  fa  ire  connoistre  l' esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la 
Compagnie  appellee  I' Hermitage. 


206  LAVAL   AND  Ml^ZY.  [1663. 

plained  to  the  provincial  of  their  order,  who  came  to 
Caen  to  close  the  dispute  by  deposing  Father  Louis. 
Hearing  of  his  approach,  Bernieres  asked  aid  from 
his  military  disciple,  and  De  M^zy  sent  him  a  squad 
of  soldiers,  who  guarded  the  convent  doors  and  barred 
out  the  provincial.  1 

Among  the  merits  of  Mdzy,  his  humility  and 
charity  were  especially  admired;  and  the  people  of 
Caen  had  more  than  once  seen  the  town  major  stag- 
gering across  the  street  with  a  beggar  mounted  on 
his  back,  whom  he  was  bearing  dry-shod  through  the 
mud  in  the  exercise  of  those  virtues. ^  In  this  he 
imitated  his  master  Bernieres,  of  whom  similar  acts 
are  recorded. ^  However  dramatic  in  manifestation, 
his  devotion  was  not  only  sincere  but  intense.  Laval 
imagined  that  he  knew  him  well.  Above  all  others, 
Mdzy  was  the  man  of  his  choice ;  and  so  eagerly  did 
he  plead  for  him  that  the  King  himself  paid  certain 
debts  which  the  pious  major  had  contracted,  and 
thus  left  him  free  to  sail  for  Canada. 

His  deportment  on  the  voyage  was  edifjdng,  and 
the  first  days  of  his  accession  were  passed  in  harmony. 
He  permitted  Laval  to  form  the  new  council,  and 
supplied  the  soldiers  for  the  seizure  of  Dumesnil's 
papers.  A  question  arose  concerning  Montreal,  a 
subject  on  which  the  governors  and  the  bishop  rarely 

1  Nicole,  Memoire  pour /aire  connoistre  I'esprit  et  la  conduite  de  la 
Compagnie  appellee  I'Hermitage. 

^  Juchereau,  Histoire  de  I'Hdtel-Dieu,  149. 

8  See  the  laudatory  notice  of  Bernieres  de  Louvigny  in  the 
Nouvelle  Biographie  Universelle. 


1663.]  SIGNS  OF  STORM.  207 

differed  in  opinion.  The  present  instance  was  no 
exception  to  the  rule.  Mdzy  removed  Maisonneuve, 
the  local  governor,  and  immediately  replaced  him,  — 
the  effect  being,  that  whereas  he  had  before  derived 
his  authority  from  the  seigniors  of  the  island,  he  now 
derived  it  from  the  governor-general.  It  was  a 
movement  in  the  interest  of  centralized  power,  and 
as  such  was  cordially  approved  by  Laval. 

The  first  indication  to  the  bishop  and  the  Jesuits 
that  the  new  governor  was  not  likely  to  prove  in 
their  hands  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the  potter,  is  said 
to  have  been  given  on  occasion  of  an  interview  with 
an  embassy  of  Iroquois  chiefs,  to  whom  Mezy,  aware 
of  their  duplicity,  spoke  with  a  decision  and  haughti- 
ness that  awed  the  savages  and  astonished  the  eccle- 
siastics. He  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  natures 
that  run  with  an  engrossing  vehemence  along  any 
channel  into  which  they  may  have  been  turned.  At 
the  Hermitage  he  was  all  devotee;  but  climate  and 
conditions  had  changed,  and  he  or  his  symptoms 
changed  with  them.  He  found  himself  raised  sud- 
denly to  a  post  of  command,  or  one  which  was  meant 
to  be  such.  The  town  major  of  Caen  was  set  to  rule 
over  a  region  far  larger  than  France.  The  royal 
authority  was  trusted  to  his  keeping,  and  his  honor 
and  duty  forbade  him  to  break  the  trust.  But  when 
he  found  that  those  who  had  procured  for  him  his 
new  dignities  had  done  so  that  he  might  be  an  instru- 
ment of  their  will,  his  ancient  pride  started  again 
into  life,  and  his  headstrong  temper  broke  out  like  a 


208  LAVAL   AND  MfiZY.  [1664. 

long-smothered    fire.     Laval    stood    aghast    at    the 
transformation.     His  lamb  had  turned  wolf. 

What  especially  stirred  the  governor's  dudgeon 
was  the  conduct  of  Bourdon,  Villeray,  and  Auteuil, 
those  faithful  allies  whom  Laval  had  placed  on  the 
council,  and  who,  as  M4zy  soon  found,  were  wholly  in 
the  bishop's  interest.  On  the  thirteenth  of  February 
he  sent  his  friend  Angoville,  major  of  the  fort,  to 
Laval,  with  a  written  declaration  to  the  effect  that 
he  had  ordered  them  to  absent  themselves  from  the 
council,  because,  having  been  appointed  "on  the 
persuasion  of  the  aforesaid  Bishop  of  Petraea,  who 
knew  them  to  be  wholly  his  creatures,  they  wish  to 
make  themselves  masters  in  the  aforesaid  council, 
and  have  acted  in  divers  ways  against  the  interests 
of  the  King  and  the  public  for  the  promotion  of 
personal  and  private  ends,  and  have  formed  and 
fomented  cabals,  contrary  to  their  duty  and  their 
oath  of  fidelity  to  his  aforesaid  Majesty."^  He 
further  declares  that  advantage  had  been  taken  of 
the  facility  of  his  disposition  and  his  ignorance  of  the 
country  to  surprise  him  into  assenting  to  their  nomi- 
nation ;  and  he  asks  the  bishop  to  acquiesce  in  their 
expulsion,  and  join  him  in  calling  an  assembly  of  the 
people  to  choose  others  in  their  place.  Laval  refused ; 
on  which  M^zy  caused  his  declaration  to  be  placarded 
about  Quebec  and  proclaimed  by  sound  of  drum. 

^  Ordre  de  M.  de  Mezy  de  faire  sommation  a  I'Eveque  de  Petree,  13 
Fev.,  1664.  Notification  du  dit  Ordre,  vieme  date.  (Registre  du 
Conseil  Superieur.) 


1664.]  DISTRESS   OF  M^ZY.  209 

The  proposal  of  a  public  election,  contrary  as  it 
was  to  the  spirit  of  the  government,  opposed  to  the 
edict  establishing  the  council,  and  utterly  odious  to 
the  young  autocrat  who  ruled  over  France,  gave 
Laval  a  great  advantage.  "I  reply,"  he  wrote,  "to 
the  request  which  Monsieur  the  Governor  makes  me 
to  consent  to  the  interdiction  of  the  persons  named 
in  his  declaration,  and  proceed  to  the  choice  of  other 
councillors  or  officers  by  an  assembly  of  the  people, 
that  neither  my  conscience  nor  my  honor,  nor  the 
respect  and  obedience  which  I  owe  to  the  will  and 
commands  of  the  King,  nor  my  fidelity  and  affection 
to  his  service,  will  by  any  means  permit  me  to 
do  so."i 

Mdzy  was  dealing  with  an  adversary  armed  with 
redoubtable  weapons.  It  was  intimated  to  him  that 
the  sacraments  would  be  refused,  and  the  churches 
closed  against  him.  This  threw  him  into  an  agony 
of  doubt  and  perturbation ;  for  the  emotional  religion 
which  had  become  a  part  of  his  nature,  though 
overborne  by  gusts  of  passionate  irritation,  was  still 
full  of  life  within  him.  Tossing  between  the  old 
feeling  and  the  new,  he  took  a  course  which  reveals 
the  trouble  and  confusion  of  his  mind.  He  threw 
himself  for  counsel  and  comfort  on  the  Jesuits, 
though  he  knew  them  to  be  one  with  Laval  against 
him,  and  though,  under  cover  of  denouncing  sin  in 
general,  they  had  lashed  him  sharply  in  their 
sermons.     There  is  something  pathetic  in  the  appeal 

1  Expanse  de  VEveq\ie  de  Petree,  16  Fev.,  1664. 

VOL.    I. 14 


210  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1664. 

he  makes  to  them.  For  the  glory  of  God  and  the 
service  of  the  King,  he  had  come,  he  says,  on  Laval's 
solicitation,  to  seek  salvation  in  Canada;  and  being 
under  obligation  to  the  bishop,  who  had  recommended 
him  to  the  King,  he  felt  bound  to  show  proofs  of  his 
gratitude  on  every  occasion.  Yet  neither  gratitude 
to  a  benefactor  nor  the  respect  due  to  his  character 
and  person  should  be  permitted  to  interfere  with 
duty  to  the  King,  "since  neither  conscience  nor 
honor  permit  us  to  neglect  the  requirements  of  our 
office  and  betray  the  interests  of  his  Majesty,  after 
receiving  orders  from  his  lips,  and  making  oath  of 
fidelity  between  his  hands."  He  proceeds  to  say 
that,  having  discovered  practices  of  which  he  felt 
obliged  to  prevent  the  continuance,  he  had  made  a 
declaration  expelling  the  offenders  from  office;  that 
the  bishop  and  all  the  ecclesiastics  had  taken  this 
declaration  as  an  offence;  that,  regardless  of  the 
King's  service,  they  had  denounced  him  as  a  calum- 
niator, an  unjust  judge,  without  gratitude,  and  per- 
verted in  conscience ;  and  that  one  of  the  chief  among 
them  had  come  to  warn  him  that  the  sacraments 
would  be  refused  and  the  churches  closed  against 
him.  "This,"  writes  the  unhappy  governor,  "has 
agitated  our  soul  with  scruples;  and  we  have  none 
from  whom  to  seek  light  save  those  who  are  our 
declared  opponents,  pronouncing  judgment  on  us 
without  knowledge  of  caiise.  Yet  as  our  salvation 
and  the  duty  we  owe  the  King  are  the  things  most 
important  to  us  on  earth,  and  as  we  hold  them  to  be 


1664.]  ADVICE   OF   THE  JESUITS.  211 

inseparable  the  one  from  the  other;  and  as  nothing 
is  so  certain  as  death,  and  nothing  so  uncertain  as 
the  hour  thereof;  and  as  there  is  no  time  to  inform 
his  Majesty  of  what  is  passing  and  to  receive  his 
commands;  and  as  our  soul,  though  conscious  of 
innocence,  is  always  in  fear,  —  we  feel  obliged,  despite 
their  opposition,  to  have  recourse  to  the  reverend 
father  casuists  of  the  House  of  Jesus,  to  tell  us  in 
conscience  what  we  can  do  for  the  fulfilment  of  our 
duty  at  once  to  God  and  to  the  King."  ^ 

The  Jesuits  gave  him  little  comfort.  Lalemant, 
their  superior,  replied  by  advising  him  to  follow  the 
directions  of  liis  confessor,  a  Jesuit,  so  far  as  the 
question  concerned  spiritual  matters,  adding  that  in 
temporal  matters  he  had  no  advice  to  give.^  The 
distinction  was  illusory.  The  quarrel  turned  wholly 
on  temporal  matters,  but  it  was  a  quarrel  with  a 
bishop.  To  separate  in  such  a  case  the  spiritual 
obligation  from  the  temporal  was  beyond  the  skill  of 
M^zy,  nor  would  the  confessor  have  helped  him. 

Perplexed  and  troubled  as  he  was,  he  would  not 
reinstate  Bourdon  and  the  two  councillors.  The 
people  began  to  clamor  at  the  interruption  of  justice, 
for  which  they  blamed  Laval,  whom  a  recent  impo- 
sition of  tithes  had  made  unpopular.  M^zy  there- 
upon issued  a  proclamation,  in  which,  after  mentioning 
his  opponents  as  the  most  subtle  and  artful  persons 

^  Mezy  aux  PP.  Jesuites,  Fait  au  Chdteau  de  Quebec  ce  dernier 
jour  de  Fevrier,  1604. 

2  Lettre  du  P.  H.  Lalemant  a  Mr.  le  Gouverneur, 


212  LAVAL  AND  MEZY.  [1664. 

in  Canada,  lie  declares  that,  in  consequence  of  peti- 
tions sent  him  from  Quebec  and  the  neighboring 
settlements,  he  had  called  the  people  to  the  council- 
chamber,  and  by  their  advice  had  appointed  the 
Sieur  de  Chartier  as  attorney-general  in  place  of 
Bourdon.  ^ 

Bourdon  replied  by  a  violent  appeal  from  the  gov- 
ernor to  the  remaining  members  of  the  council  ;2 
on  which  M^zy  declared  him  excluded  from  all  public 
functions  whatever,  till  the  King's  pleasure  should 
be  known. 2  Thus  Church  and  State  still  frowned 
on  each  other,  and  new  disputes  soon  arose  to  widen 
the  breach  between  them.  On  the  first  establish- 
ment of  the  council,  an  order  had  been  passed  for  the 
election  of  a  mayor  and  two  aldermen  (echevins)  for 
Quebec,  which  it  was  proposed  to  erect  into  a  city, 
though  it  had  only  seventy  houses  and  less  than  a 
thousand  inhabitants.  Repentigny  was  chosen  mayor, 
and  Madry  and  Charron  aldermen;  but  the  choice 
was  not  agreeable  to  the  bishop,  and  the  three  func- 
tionaries declined  to  act,  influence  having  probably  | 
been  brought  to  bear  on  them  to  that  end.  The 
council  now  resolved  that  a  mayor  was  needless,  and 
the  people  were  permitted  to  choose  a  syndic  in  his 
stead.  These  municipal  elections  were  always  so 
controlled  by  the  authorities  that  the  element  of 
liberty  which  they  seemed  to  represent  was  little  but 

1  Declaration  da  Sieur  de  Mezj/,  10  Mars,  1664. 

2  Bourdon  au   Conneil,  13  Mars,  1664. 

3  Ordre  du   Gouverneur,  13  Mars,  1664. 


1664.]  M^ZY  REFUSES  TO  YIELD.  213 

a  mockery.  On  the  present  occasion,  after  an  unac- 
countable delay  of  ten  months,  twenty-two  persons 
cast  their  votes  in  presence  of  the  council,  and  the 
choice  fell  on  Charron.  The  real  question  was 
whether  the  new  syndic  should  belong  to  the  gov- 
ernor or  to  the  bishop.  Charron  leaned  to  the 
governor's  party.  The  ecclesiastics  insisted  that  the 
people  were  dissatisfied,  and  a  new  election  was 
ordered,  but  the  voters  did  not  come.  The  governor 
now  sent  messages  to  such  of  the  inhabitants  as  he 
knew  to  be  in  his  interest,  who  gathered  in  the 
council-chamber,  voted  under  his  eye,  and  again 
chose  a  syndic  agreeable  to  him.  Laval's  party 
protested  in  vain.^ 

The  councillors  held  office  for  a  year,  and  the  year 
had  now  expired.  The  governor  and  the  bishop,  it 
will  be  remembered,  had  a  joint  power  of  appoint- 
ment; but  agreement  between  them  was  impossible. 
Laval  was  for  replacing  his  partisans.  Bourdon, 
Villeray,  Auteuil,  and  La  Fertd.  Mdzy  refused; 
and  on  the  eighteenth  of  September  he  reconstructed 
the  council  by  his  sole  authority,  retaining  of  the 
old  councillors  only  Amours  and  Tilly,  and  replacing 
the  rest  by  Denis,  La  Tesserie,  and  Pdronne  de  Maz^, 
the  surviving  son  of  Dumesnil.  Again  Laval  pro- 
tested ;  but  Mezy  proclaimed  his  choice  by  sound  of 
drum,  and  caused  placards  to  be  posted,  full,  accord- 
ing to  Father  Lalemant,  of  abuse  against  the  bishop. 
On  this  he  was  excluded  from  confession  and  absolu- 

^  Registre  du  Conseil  Superieur, 


214  LAVAL  AND  MfiZY.  [1664. 

tion.  He  complained  loudly;  "but  our  reply  was," 
says  the  father,  "that  God  knew  every  thing. "  ^ 

This  unanswerable  but  somewhat  irrelevant  re- 
sponse failed  to  satisfy  him,  and  it  was  possibly  on 
this  occasion  that  an  incident  occurred  which  is 
recounted  by  the  bishop's  eulogist,  La  Tour.  He 
says  that  M^zy,  with  some  unknown  design,  appeared 
before  the  church  at  the  head  of  a  band  of  soldiers, 
while  Laval  was  saying  mass.  The  service  over, 
the  bishop  presented  himself  at  the  door,  on  which, 
to  the  governor's  confusion,  all  the  soldiers  respect- 
fully saluted  him.^  The  story  may  have  some  foun- 
dation, but  it  is  not  supported  by  contemporary 
evidence. 

On  the  Sunday  after  Mdzy's  couj)  d'etat^  the  pulpits 
resounded  with  denunciations.  The  people  listened, 
doubtless,  with  becoming  respect;  but  their  sympa- 
thies were  with  the  governor;  and  he,  on  his  part, 
had  made  appeals  to  them  at  more  than  one  crisis  of 
the  quarrel.  He  now  fell  into  another  indiscretion. 
He  banished  Bourdon  and  Villeray,  and  ordered 
them  home  to  France. 

They  carried  with  them  the  instruments  of  their 
revenge,  —  the  accusations  of  Laval  and  the  Jesuits 
against  the  author  of  their  woes.  Of  these  accusa- 
tions one  alone  would  have  sufficed.  Mdzy  had 
appealed  to  the  people.     It  is  true  that  he  did  so 

1  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Octobre,  1664. 

-  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liv.  vii.  It  is  charitable  to  ascribe  this 
writer's  many  errors  to  carelessness. 


1664.]  M^ZY'S  DEFEAT.  215 

from  no  love  of  popular  liberty,  but  simply  to  make 
head  against  an  opponent;  yet  the  act  alone  was 
enough,  and  he  received  a  peremptory  recall.  Again 
Laval  had  triumphed.  He  had  made  one  governor 
and  unmade  two,  if  not  three.  The  modest  Levite, 
as  one  of  his  biographers  calls  him  in  his  earlier  days, 
had  become  the  foremost  power  in  Canada. 

Laval  had  a  threefold  strength  at  court,  —  his  high 
birth,  his  reputed  sanctity,  and  the  support  of  the 
Jesuits.  This  was  not  all,  for  the  permanency  of 
his  position  in  the  colony  gave  him  another  advan- 
tage. The  governors  were  named  for  three  years,  and 
could  be  recalled  at  any  time ;  but  the  vicar  apostolic 
owed  his  appointment  to  the  Pope,  and  the  Pope 
alone  could  revoke  it.  Thus  he  was  beyond  reach 
of  the  royal  authority,  and  the  court  was  in  a  certain 
sense  obliged  to  conciliate  him.  As  for  Mdzy,  a  man 
of  no  rank  or  influence,  he  could  expect  no  mercy. 
Yet,  though  irritable  and  violent,  he  seems  to  have 
tried  conscientiously  to  reconcile  conflicting  duties, 
or  what  he  regarded  as  such.  The  governors  and 
intendants,  his  successors,  received,  during  many 
years,  secret  instructions  from  the  court  to  watch 
Laval,  and  cautiously  prevent  him  from  assuming 
powers  which  did  not  belong  to  him.  It  is  likely 
that  similar  instructions  had  been  given  to  Mdzy,i 

1  The  royal  commissioner,  Gaudais,  who  came  to  Canada  with 
Mezy,  had,  as  before  mentioned,  orders  to  inquire  with  great  secrecy 
into  the  conduct  of  Laval.  The  intendant,  Talon,  who  followed 
immediately  after,  had  similar  instructions. 


216  LAVAL  AND  M^ZY.  [1665. 

and  that  the  attempt  to  fulfil  them  had  aided  to 
embroil  him  with  one  who  was  probably  the  last  man 
on  earth  with  whom  he  would  willingly  have 
quarrelled. 

An  inquiry  was  ordered  into  his  conduct;  but  a 
voice  more  potent  than  the  voice  of  the  King  had 
called  him  to  another  tribunal.  A  disease,  the  result 
perhaps  of  mental  agitation,  seized  upon  him  and 
soon  brought  him  to  extremity.  As  he  lay  gasping 
between  life  and  death,  fear  and  horror  took  posses- 
sion of  his  soul.  Hell  yawned  before  his  fevered 
vision,  peopled  with  phantoms  which  long  and  lonely 
meditations,  after  the  discipline  of  Loyola,  made  real 
and  palpable  to  his  thought.  He  smelt  the  fumes  of 
infernal  brimstone,  and  heard  the  bowlings  of  the 
damned.  He  saw  the  frown  of  the  angry  Judge,  and 
the  fiery  swords  of  avenging  angels,  hurling  wretches 
like  himself,  writhing  in  anguish  and  despair,  into 
the  gulf  of  unutterable  woe.  He  listened  to  the 
ghostly  counsellors  who  besieged  his  bed,  bowed  his 
head  in  penitence,  made  his  peace  with  the  Church, 
asked  pardon  of  Laval,  confessed  to  him,  and  received 
absolution  at  his  hands;  and  his  late  adversaries, 
now  benign  and  bland,  soothed  him  with  promises  of 
pardon,  and  hopes  of  eternal  bliss. 

Before  he  died,  he  wrote  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy, 
newly  appointed  viceroy,  a  letter  which  indicates  that 
even  in  his  penitence  he  could  not  feel  himself  wholly 
in  the  wrong.  ^     He  also   left  a  will  in  which   the 

1  Lettre  de  Mezy  au  Marquis  de  Tracy,  26  Avril,  1665. 


1665.]  DEATH  OF  M^ZY.  217 

pathetic  and  the  quaint  are  curiously  mingled. 
After  prapng  his  patron,  Saint  Augustine,  with 
Saint  John,  Saint  Peter,  and  all  the  other  saints,  to 
intercede  for  the  pardon  of  his  sins,  he  directs  that 
his  body  shall  be  buried  in  the  cemetery  of  the  poor 
at  the  hospital,  as  being  unworthy  of  more  honored 
sepulture.  He  then  makes  various  legacies  of  piety 
and  charity.  Other  bequests  follow,  —  one  of  which 
is  to  his  friend  Major  Angoville,  to  whom  he  leaves 
two  hundred  francs,  his  coat  of  English  cloth,  his 
camlet  mantle,  a  pair  of  new  shoes,  eight  shirts  with 
sleeve-buttons,  his  sword  and  belt,  and  a  new  blanket 
for  the  major's  servant.  Felix  Aubert  is  to  have 
fifty  francs,  with  a  gray  jacket,  a  small  coat  of  gray 
serge,  "which,"  says  the  testator,  "has  been  worn  for 
a  while,"  and  a  pair  of  long  white  stockings.  And 
in  a  codicil  he  further  leaves  to  Angoville  his  best 
black  coat,  in  order  that  he  may  wear  mourning  for 
him.i 

His  earthly  troubles  closed  on  the  night  of  the 
sixth  of  May.  He  went  to  his  rest  among  the 
paupers ;  and  the  priests,  serenely  triumphant,  sang 
requiems  over  his  grave. 

Note.  —  Mezy  sent  home  charges  against  the  bishop  and  the 
Jesuits  which  seem  to  have  existed  in  Charlevoix's  time,  but  for 
which,  as  well  as  for  those  made  by  Laval,  I  have  sought  in  vain. 

The  substance  of  these  mutual  accusations  is  given  thus  by  the 
minister  Colbert,  in  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  Marquis  de  Tracy, 
in  1665 :  "  Les  Je'suites  I'accusent  d'avarice  et  de  violences ;  et  lui 

1  Testament  du  Sieur  de  Mezy.  This  will,  as  well  as  the  letter,  is 
engrossed  in  the  registers  of  the  council. 


218  LAVAL   AND  MfiZY.  [1665. 

qu'ils  voulaient  entreprendre  sur  I'autorite  qui  lui  a  ete  commise 
par  le  Roy,  en  sorte  que  n'ayant  que  de  leurs  creatures  dans  le 
Conseil  Souverain,  toutes  les  resolutions  s'y  prenaient  selon  leura 
sentiments." 

The  papers  cited  are  drawn  partly  from  the  Registres  du  Conseil 
Superieur,  still  preserved  at  Quebec,  and  partly  from  the  Archives 
of  the  Marine  and  Colonies.  Laval's  admirer,  the  Abbe  La  Tour, 
in  his  eagerness  to  justify  the  bishop,  says  that  the  quarrel  arose 
from  a  dispute  about  precedence  between  Mezy  and  the  intendant, 
and  from  the  ill-humor  of  the  governor  because  the  intendant 
shared  the  profits  of  his  office.  The  truth  is,  that  there  was  no 
intendant  in  Canada  during  the  term  of  Mezy's  government.  One 
Robert  had  been  appointed  to  the  office,  but  he  never  came  to  the 
colony.  The  commissioner  Gaudais,  during  the  two  or  three  months 
of  his  stay  at  Quebec,  took  the  intendant's  place  at  the  council- 
board;  but  harmony  between  Laval  and  Mezy  was  unbroken  till 
after  his  departure.  Other  writers  say  that  the  dispute  arose  from 
the  old  question  about  brandy.  Towards  the  end  of  the  quarrel 
there  was  some  disorder  from  this  source,  but  even  then  the  brandy 
question  was  subordinate  to  other  subjects  of  strife. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

1662-1680. 

LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY. 

Laval's  Visit  to  Court.  —  The  Seminary.  —  Zeal  of  the  Bishop  : 
HIS  Eulogists.  —  Church  and  State.  —  Attitude  of  Laval. 

That  memorable  journey  of  Laval  to  court,  which 
caused  the  dissolution  of  the  Company  of  New 
France,  the  establishment  of  the  Supreme  Council, 
the  recall  of  Avaugour,  and  the  appointment  of 
Mdzy,  had  yet  other  objects  and  other  results. 
Laval,  vicar  apostolic  and  titular  Bishop  of  Petrsea, 
wished  to  become  in  title,  as  in  fact,  Bishop  of 
Quebec.  Thus  he  would  gain  an  increase  of  dignity 
and  authority,  necessary,  as  he  thought,  in  his  con- 
flicts with  the  civil  power;  "for,"  he  wrote  to  the 
cardinals  of  the  Propaganda,  "I  have  learned  from 
long  experience  how  little  security  my  character  of 
vicar  apostolic  gives  me  against  those  charged  with 
political  affairs:  I  mean  the  officers  of  the  Crown, 
perpetual  rivals  and  contemners  of  the  authority  of 
the  Church."! 

*  For  a  long  extract  from  this  letter,  copied  from  the  original  in 
the  archives  of  the  Propaganda  at  Rome,  see  Faillon,  Colonie 
Frangais,  iii.  432. 


220      LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY.   [1662-80. 

This  reason  was  for  the  Pope  and  the  cardinals. 
It  may  well  be  believed  that  he  held  a  different 
language  to  the  King.  To  him  he  urged  that  the 
bisho]3ric  was  needed  to  enforce  order,  suppress  sin, 
and  crush  heresy.  Both  Louis  XIV.  and  the  Queen 
Mother  favored  his  wishes;^  but  difficulties  arose, 
and  interminable  disputes  ensued  on  the  question 
whether  the  proposed  bishopric  should  depend  imme- 
diately on  the  Pope  or  on  the  Archbishop  of  Rouen. 
It  was  a  revival  of  the  old  quarrel  of  Galilean  and 
ultramontane.  Laval,  weary  of  hope  deferred,  at 
length  declared  that  he  would  leave  the  colony  if  he 
could  not  be  its  bishop  in  title ;  and  in  1674,  after 
eleven  years  of  delay,  the  King  yielded  to  the  Pope's 
demands,  and  the  vicar  apostolic  became  first  Bishop 
of  Quebec. 

If  Laval  had  to  wait  for  his  mitre,  he  found  no 
delay  and  no  difficulty  in  attaining  another  object  no 
less  dear  to  him.  He  wished  to  provide  priests  for 
Canada,  drawn  from  the  Canadian  population,  fed 
with  sound  and  wholesome  doctrine,  reared  under  his 
eye,  and  moulded  by  his  hand.  To  this  end  he 
proposed  to  establish  a  seminary  at  Quebec.  The 
plan  found  favor  with  the  pious  King,  and  a  decree 
signed  by  his  hand  sanctioned  and  confirmed  it. 
The  new  seminary  was  to  be  a  corporation  of  priests 
under  a  superior  chosen  by  the  bishop;  and,  besides 

1  Anne  d'Autriche  a  Laval,  2S  Avril,  16G2;  Louis  XIV.  an  Pape, 
28  Jan.  1664;  Loius  XIV.  au  Due  de  Creqiiy,  Ambassadeur  a  Rome, 
28  .Tune,  1664. 


1662-80.]  THE   PARISH  PRIEST.  221 

its  functions  of  instruction,  it  was  vested  with  dis- 
tinct and  extraordinary  powers.  Laval,  an  organizer 
and  a  disciplinarian  by  nature  and  training,  would 
fain  subject  the  priests  of  his  diocese  to  a  control  as 
complete  as  that  of  monks  in  a  convent.  In  France, 
the  curd  or  parish  priest  was,  with  rare  exceptions,  a 
fixture  in  his  parish,  whence  he  could  be  removed 
only  for  grave  reasons,  and  through  prescribed  forms 
of  procedure.  Hence  he  was  to  a  certain  degree 
independent  of  the  bishop.  Laval,  on  the  contrary, 
demanded  that  the  Canadian  cure  should  be  remov- 
able at  his  will,  and  thus  placed  in  the  position  of  a 
missionary,  to  come  and  go  at  the  order  of  his 
superior.  In  fact,  the  Canadian  parishes  were  for  a 
long  time  so  widely  scattered,  so  feeble  in  popula- 
tion, and  so  miserably  poor,  that,  besides  the  disciplin- 
ary advantages  of  this  plan,  its  adoption  was  at  first 
almost  a  matter  of  necessit}%  It  added  greatly  to 
the  power  of  the  Church;  and,  as  the  colony 
increased,  the  King  and  the  minister  conceived  an 
increasing  distrust  of  it.  Instructions  for  the  "  fixa- 
tion "  of  the  curds  were  repeatedly  sent  to  the  colony, 
and  the  bishop,  while  professing  to  obey,  repeatedly 
evaded  them.  Various  fluctuations  and  changes 
took  place;  but  Laval  had  built  on  strong  founda- 
tions, and  at  this  day  the  system  of  removable  curds 
prevails  in  most  of  the  Canadian  parishes.^ 

^  On  the  establishment  of  the  seminary.  Mandement  de  I'Eveqne 
de  Petr€e,  pour  V Etahlissement  du  S€mina{re  de  Quebec ;  Approbation 
du  Roy  (Edits  et  Ordonnances,  i.  .33,  35) ;  La  Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  liy. 


222  LAVAL  AND   THE  SEMINARY.       [1662-80. 

Thus  he  formed  his  clergy  into  a  family  with  him- 
self at  its  head.  His  seminary,  the  mother  who  had 
reared  them,  was  further  charged  to  maintain  them, 
nurse  them  in  sickness,  and  support  them  in  old  age. 
Under  her  maternal  roof  the  tired  priest  found  repose 
among  his  brethren ;  and  thither  every  year  he  repaired 
from  the  charge  of  his  flock  in  the  wilderness,  to 
freshen  his  devotion  and  animate  his  zeal  by  a  season 
of  meditation  and  prayer. 

The  difficult  task  remained  to  provide  the  neces- 
sary funds.  Laval  imposed  a  tithe  of  one-thirteenth 
on  all  products  of  the  soil,  or,  as  afterwards  settled, 
on  grains  alone.  This  tithe  was  paid  to  the  seminary, 
and  by  the  seminary  to  the  priests.  The  people, 
unused  to  such  a  burden,  clamored  and  resisted; 
and  Mezy,  in  his  disputes  with  the  bishop,  had  taken 
advantage  of  their  discontent.  It  became  necessary 
to  reduce  the  tithe  to  a  twenty-sixth,  which,  as  there 
was  little  or  no  money  among  the  inhabitants,  was 
paid  in  kind.  Nevertheless,  the  scattered  and 
impoverished  settlers  grudged  even  this  contribution 
to  the  support  of  a  priest  whom  many  of  them  rarely 
saw;  and  the  collection  of  it  became  a  matter  of  the 
greatest  difficulty  and  uncertainty.  How  the  King 
came  to  the  rescue,  we  shall  hereafter  see. 

Besides  the  great  seminary  where  young  men  were 
trained  for  the  priesthood,  there  was  the  lesser  semi- 

vi. ;  Esquisse  de  la  Vie  de  Laval,  Appendix.  Various  papers  bear- 
ing on  the  subject  are  printed  in  the  Canadian  Aheille,  from  origi- 
nals in  the  archives  of  the  seminary. 


1662-80.]  ENDOWMENTS  OF  LAVAL.  223 

nary  where  boys  were  educated  in  the  hope  that  they 
would  one  day  take  orders.  This  school  began  in 
1668,  with  eight  French  and  six  Indian  pupils,  in  the 
old  house  of  Madame  Couillard;  but  so  far  as  the 
Indians  were  concerned  it  was  a  failure.  Sooner  or 
later  they  all  ran  wild  in  the  woods,  carrying  with 
them  as  fruits  of  their  sptudies  a  sufficiency  of  prayers, 
offices,  and  chants  learned  by  rote,  along  with  a 
feeble  smattering  of  Latin  and  rhetoric,  which  they 
soon  dropped  by  the  way.  There  was  also  a  sort  of 
farm-school  attached  to  the  seminary,  for  the  training 
of  a  humbler  class  of  pupils.  It  was  established  at 
the  parish  of  St.  Joachim,  below  Quebec,  where  the 
children  of  artisans  and  peasants  were  taught  farming 
and  various  mechanical  arts,  and  thoroughly  grounded 
in  the  doctrine  and  discipline  of  the  Church.^  The 
Great  and  Lesser  Seminary  still  subsist,  and  form  one 
of  the  most  important  Roman  Catholic  institutions 
on  this  continent.  To  them  has  recently  been  added 
the  Laval  University,  resting  on  the  same  foundation, 
and  supported  by  the  same  funds. 

Whence  were  these  funds  derived?  Laval,  in 
order  to  imitate  the  poverty  of  the  apostles,  had 
divested  himself  of  his  property  before  he  came  to 
Canada;  otherwise  there  is  little  doubt  that  in  the 
fulness  of  his  zeal  he  would  have  devoted  it  to  his 


^  Annates  du  Petit  S^minaire  de  Quebec,  see  Abeille,  vol.  i. ;  Notice 
Historique  sw  le  Petit  Seminaire  de  Quebec,  Ibid.,  vol.  ii. ;  Notice 
Historigue  sur  la  Paroisse  de  St.  Joachim,  Ibid.,  vol.  i.  The  Abeille 
is  a  journal  published  by  the  seminary. 


224  LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY.       [1662-80. 

favorite  object.  But  if  he  had  no  property  he  had 
influence,  and  his  family  had  both  influence  and 
wealth.  He  acquired  vast  grants  of  land  in  the  best 
parts  of  Canada.  Some  of  these  he  sold  or  exchanged ; 
others  he  retained  till  the  year  1680,  when  he  gave 
them,  with  nearly  all  else  that  he  then  possessed,  to 
his  seminary  at  Quebec.  The  lands  with  which  he 
thus  endowed  it  included  the  seigniories  of  the 
Petite  Nation,  the  Island  of  Jesus,  and  Beauprd. 
The  last  is  of  great  extent,  and  at  the  present  day  of 
immense  value.  Beginning  a  few  miles  below  Quebec, 
it  borders  the  St.  Lawrence  for  a  distance  of  sixteen 
leagues,  and  is  six  leagues  in  depth,  measured  from 
the  river.  From  these  sources  the  seminary  still 
draws  an  abundant  revenue,  though  its  seigniorial 
rights  were  commuted  on  the  recent  extinction  of  the 
feudal  tenure  in  Canada. 

Well  did  Laval  deserve  that  his  name  should  live 
in  that  of  the  university  which  a  century  and  a  half 
after  his  death  owed  its  existence  to  his  bounty. 
This  father  of  the  Canadian  Church,  who  has  left  so 
deep  an  impress  on  one  of  the  communities  which 
form  the  vast  population  of  North  America,  belonged 
to  a  type  of  character  to  which  an  even  justice  is 
rarely  done.  With  the  exception  of  the  Canadian 
Garneau,  a  liberal  Catholic,  those  who  have  treated 
of  him  have  seen  him  through  a  medium  intensely 
Romanist,  coloring,  hiding,  and  exaggerating  by 
turns  both  his  actions  and  the  traits  of  his  character. 
Tried  by  the    Romanist  standard,   his   merits   were 


1662-80.]  LAVAL'S  POSITION.  225 

great;  though  the  extraordinary  influence  which  he 
exercised  in  the  affairs  of  the  colony  were,  as  ah-eady 
observed,   by  no  means  due  to  his  spiritual  graces 
alone.     To  a  saint  sprung  from  the  haute  noblesse, 
Earth   and   Heaven   were    alike   propitious.     When 
the  vicar-general  Colombiere  pronounced  his  funeral 
eulogy  in  the  sounding  periods  of  Bossuet,  he  did 
not   fail   to   exhibit   him   on   the   ancestral  pedestal 
where  his  virtues  would  shine  with  redoubled  lustre. 
"  The  exploits  of  the  heroes  of  the  House  of  Mont- 
morency," exclaims  the  reverend  orator,   "form  one 
of  the  fairest  chapters  in  the  annals  of  Old  France  ; 
the    heroic    acts    of    charity,    humilit3%    ^^^    faith 
achieved  by  a  Montmorency  form  one  of  the  fairest 
in  the  annals  of  New  France.     The  combats,  victories, 
and  conquests  of  the  Montmorency  in  EurojDe  would 
fill  whole  volumes ;  and  so,  too,  would  the  triumphs 
won  by  a  Montmorency  in  America  over  sin,  passion, 
and   the  Devil."     Then    he   crowns    the   high-born 
prelate  with  a  halo  of  fourfold  saintship:  "It  was 
with  good  reason  that  Providence  permitted  him  to 
be  called  Francis,  for  the  virtues  of  all  the  saints  of 
that  name  were  combined  in  him,  —  the  zeal  of  Saint 
Francis  Xavier,  the  charity  of  Saint  Francis  of  Sales, 
the   poverty   of   Saint   Francis   of   Assisi,   the   self- 
mortification  of  Saint  Francis  Borgia;  but   poverty 
was  the  mistress  of  his  heart,  and  he  loved  her  with 
incontrollable  transports." 

The  stories  which  Colombiere  proceeds  to  tell  of 
Laval's  asceticism  are  confirmed  by  other  evidence, 

VOL.  I.  — 15 


226  LAVAL   AND   THE   SEMINARY.       [1662-80. 

and  are,  no  doubt,  true.  Nor  is  there  any  reasonable 
doubt  that,  had  the  bishop  stood  in  the  place  of 
Brebeuf  or  Charles  Lalemant,  he  would  have  suffered 
torture  and  death  like  them.  But  it  was  his  lot  to 
strive,  not  against  infidel  savages,  but  against  country- 
men and  Catholics,  who  had  no  disposition  to  burn 
him,  and  would  rather  have  done  him  reverence  than 
wrong. 

To  comprehend  his  actions  and  motives,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  his  ideas  in  regard  to  the  relations  of 
Church  and  State.  They  were  those  of  the  extreme 
ultramontanes,  which  a  recent  Jesuit  preacher  has 
expressed  with  tolerable  distinctness.  In  a  sermon 
uttered  in  the  Church  of  Notre  Dame,  at  Montreal, 
on  the  first  of  November,  1872,  he  thus  announced 
them :  "  The  supremacy  and  infallibility  of  the  Pope ; 
the  independence  and  liberty  of  the  Church;  the 
subordination  and  submission  of  the  State  to  the 
Church ;  in  case  of  conflict  between  them,  the 
Church  to  decide,  the  State  to  submit:  for  whoever 
follows  and  defends  these  principles,  life  and  a  bless- 
ing; for  whoever  rejects  and  combats  them,  death 
and  a  curse."  ^ 

These  were  the   principles  which   Laval   and  the 

^  This  sermon  was  preached  by  Father  Braun,  S.  J.,  on  occasion 
of  the  "  Golden  Wedding,"  or  fiftieth  anniversary  of  Bishop 
Bourget  of  Montreal.  A  large  body  of  the  Canadian  clergy  were 
present,  some  of  whom  thought  his  expressions  too  emphatic.  A 
translation  by  another  Jesuit  is  published  in  the  "  Montreal 
"Weekly  Herald  "  of  Nov.  2,  1872 ;  and  the  above  extract  is  copied 
verhatim. 


1662-80.]    MENTAL  CONDITION  OF   LAVAL.  227 

Jesuits  strove  to  make  good.  Christ  was  to  rule  in 
Canada  through  his  deputy  the  bishop,  and  God's 
law  was  to  triumph  over  the  laws  of  man.  As  in 
the  halcyon  days  of  Champlain  and  Montmagny,  the 
governor  was  to  be  the  right  hand  of  the  Church,  to 
wield  the  earthly  sword  at  her  bidding;  and  the 
council  was  to  be  the  agent  of  her  high  behests. 

France  was  drifting  toward  the  triumph  of  the 
parti  devot,  the  sinister  reign  of  petticoat  and  cas- 
sock, the  era  of  Maintenon  and  Tellier,  and  the  fatal 
atrocities  of  the  dragonnades.  Yet  the  advancing 
tide  of  priestly  domination  did  not  flow  smoothly. 
The  unparalleled  prestige  which  surrounded  the 
throne  of  the  young  King,  joined  to  his  quarrels  with 
the  Pope  and  divisions  in  the  Church  itself,  dis- 
turbed, though  they  could  not  check,  its  progress. 
In  Canada  it  was  otherwise.  The  colony  had  been 
ruled  by  priests  from  the  beginning,  and  it  only 
remained  to  continue  in  her  future  the  law  of  her 
past.  She  was  the  fold  of  Christ;  the  wolf  of  civil 
government  was  among  the  flock,  and  Laval  and  the 
Jesuits,  watchful  shepherds,  were  doing  their  best  to 
chain  and  muzzle  him. 

According  to  Argenson,  Laval  had  said,  "  A  bishop 
can  do  what  he  likes;  "  and  his  action  answered  rea- 
sonably well  to  his  words.  He  thought  liimself  above 
human  law.  In  vindicating  the  assumed  rights  of 
the  Church,  he  invaded  the  rights  of  others,  and 
used  means  from  which  a  healthy  conscience  would 
have  shrunk.     All  his  thoughts  and  sj-mpatliies  had 


228      LAVAL  AND  THE  SEMINARY.   [1662-80. 

run  from  childhood  in  ecclesiastical  channels,  and  he 
cared  for  nothing  outside  the  Church.  Prayer,  medi- 
tation, and  asceticism  had  leavened  and  moulded 
him.  During  four  years  he  had  been  steeped  in  the 
mysticism  of  the  Hermitage,  which  had  for  its  aim 
the  annihilation  of  self,  and  through  self-annihilation 
the  absorption  into  God.^  He  had  passed  from  a  life 
of  visions  to  a  life  of  action.  Earnest  to  fanaticism, 
he  saw  but  one  great  object,  —  the  glory  of  God  on 
earth.  He  was  penetrated  by  the  poisonous  casuistry 
of  the  Jesuits,  based  on  the  assumption  that  all 
means  are  permitted  when  the  end  is  the  service  of 
God ;  and  as  Laval,  in  his  own  opinion,  was  always 
doing  the  service  of  God,  while  his  opponents  were 
always  doing  that  of  the  Devil,  he  enjoyed,  in  the 
use  of  means,  a  latitude  of  which  we  have  seen  him 
avail  himself. 

^  See  the  maxims  of  Bernieres  published  by  La  Tour. 


SECTION  THIRD. 
THE  COLONY  AND  THE  KING. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

1661-1665. 
ROYAL  INTERVENTION. 

FOKTAINEBLEAU.  —  LOUIS     XIV.  —  COLBERT.  —  ThE     CoMPANT    OF 

THE  West.  —  Evil  Ojiens.  —  Action  of  the   King.  —  Tract, 

COURCELLE,   AND    TaLON.  —  ThE    ReGIMENT   OF   CaRIGNAN-SaLI- 

iiREs.  —  Tract  at  Quebec.  —  Miracles.  —  A  Holt  War. 

Leave  Canada  behind;  cross  the  sea,  and  stand, 
on  an  evening  in  June,  by  the  edge  of  the  forest  of 
Fontainebleau.  Beyond  the  broad  gardens,  above 
the  long  ranges  of  moonlit  trees,  rise  the  walls  and 
pinnacles  of  the  vast  chateau,  —  a  shrine  of  history, 
the  gorgeous  monument  of  lines  of  vanished  kings, 
haunted  with  memories  of  Capet,  Valois,  and 
Bourbon. 

There  was  little  thought  of  the  past  at  Fontainebleau 
in  June,  1661.  The  present  was  too  dazzling  and 
too  intoxicating;  the  future,  too  radiant  with  hope 
and  promise.     It  was  the  morning  of  a  new  reign; 


230  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1661. 

the  sun  of  Louis  XIV.  was  rising  in  splendor,  and 
the  rank  and  beauty  of  France  were  gathered  to  pay- 
it  homage.  A  youthful  court,  a  youthful  king;  a 
pomp  and  magnificence  such  as  Europe  had  never 
seen;  a  delirium  of  ambition,  pleasure,  and  love,  — 
all  this  wrought  in  many  a  young  heart  an  enchant- 
ment destined  to  be  cruelly  broken.  Even  old  cour- 
tiers felt  the  fascination  of  the  scene,  and  tell  us  of 
the  music  at  evening  by  the  borders  of  the  lake ;  of 
the  gay  groups  that  strolled  under  the  shadowing 
trees,  floated  in  gilded  barges  on  the  still  water,  or 
moved  slowly  in  open  carriages  around  its  borders. 
Here  was  Anne  of  Austria,  the  King's  mother,  and 
Marie  Th^rese,  his  tender  and  jealous  queen;  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  with  his  bride  of  six- 
teen, Henriette  of  England;  and  his  favorite,  that 
vicious  butterfly  of  the  court,  the  Count  de  Guiche. 
Here,  too,  were  the  humbled  chiefs  of  the  civil  war, 
Beaufort  and  Cond^,  obsequious  before  their  triumph- 
ant master.  Louis  XIV.,  the  centre  of  all  eyes,  in 
the  flush  of  health  and  vigor,  and  the  pride  of  new- 
fledged  royalty,  stood,  as  he  still  stands  on  the 
canvas  of  Philippe  de  Champagne,  attired  in  a 
splendor  which  would  have  been  effeminate  but  for 
the  stately  port  of  the  youth  who  wore  it.^ 

Fortune  had  been  strangely  bountiful   to   Louis 

^  On  the  visit  of  the  court  at  Fontainebleau  in  the  summer  of 
1661,  see  Memoires  de  Madame  de  Motteville,  Memoires  de  Madame  de 
La  Fayette,  Memoires  de  I'Abb^  de  Choisy,  and  Walckenaer's  Me- 
moires sur  Madame  de  Sevign^. 


1661.]  LOUIS   XIV.  231 

XIV.  The  nations  of  Europe,  exhausted  by  wars 
and  dissensions,  looked  upon  liim  with  respect  and 
fear.  Among  weak  and  weary  neighbors,  he  alone 
was  strongo  The  death  of  Mazarin  had  released  him 
from  tutelage ;  feudalism  in  the  person  of  Condd  was 
abject  before  him ;  he  had  reduced  his  parliaments  to 
submission ;  and  in  the  arrest  of  the  ambitious  prodi- 
gal Fouquet,  he  was  preparing  a  crushing  blow  to 
the  financial  corruption  which  had  devoured  France. 

Nature  had  formed  him  to  act  the  part  of  King. 
Even  his  critics  and  enemies  praise  the  grace  and 
majesty  of  his  presence,  and  he  impressed  his  cour- 
tiers with  an  admiration  which  seems  to  have  been  to 
an  astonishing  degree  genuine.  He  carried  airs  of 
royalty  even  into  his  pleasures;  and  while  his 
example  corrupted  all  France,  he  proceeded  to  the 
apartments  of  Montespan  or  Fontanges  with  the 
majestic  gravity  of  Olymj^ian  Jove.  He  was  a 
devout  observer  of  the  forms  of  religion ;  and  as  the 
buoyancy  of  youth  passed  away,  his  zeal  was  stimu- 
lated by  a  profound  fear  of  the  Devil.  Mazarin  had 
reared  him  in  ignorance ;  but  his  faculties  were  excel- 
lent in  their  way,  and  in  a  private  station  would 
have  made  him  an  efficient  man  of  business.  The 
vivacity  of  his  passions  and  his  inordinate  love  of 
pleasure  were  joined  to  a  persistent  will  and  a  rare 
power  of  labor.  The  vigorous  mediocrity  of  his 
understanding  delighted  in  grappling  with  details. 
His  astonished  courtiers  saw  him  take  on  himself  the 
burden   of  administration,    and  work   at  it  without 


232  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1661. 

relenting  for  more  than  half  a  century.  Great  as 
was  his  energy,  his  pride  was  far  greater.  As  king 
by  divine  right,  he  felt  himself  raised  immeasurably 
above  the  highest  of  his  subjects;  but  while  vindi- 
cating with  unparalleled  haughtiness  his  claims  to 
supreme  authority,  he  was,  at  the  outset,  filled  with 
a  sense  of  the  duties  of  his  high  place,  and  fired  by 
an  ambition  to  make  his  reign  beneficent  to  France 
as  well  as  glorious  to  himself. 

Above  all  rulers  of  modern  times,  Louis  XIV.  was 
the  embodiment  of  the  monarchical  idea.  The 
famous  words  ascribed  to  him,  "I  am  the  State," 
were  probably  never  uttered;  but  they  perfectly 
express  his  spirit.  "It  is  God's  will,"  he  wrote  in 
1666,  "that  whoever  is  born  a  subject  should  not 
reason,  but  obey;"^  and  those  around  him  were  of 
his  mind.  "The  State  is  in  the  King,"  said  Bossuet, 
the  great  mouthpiece  of  monarchy ;  "  the  will  of  the 
people  is  merged  in  his  will.  O  Kings!  put  forth 
your  power  boldly,  for  it  is  divine  and  salutary  to 
humankind.  "2 

For  a  few  brief  years,  this  King's  reign  was  indeed 
salutary  to  France.  His  judgment  of  men,  when 
not  obscured  by  his  pride  and  his  passion  for  flattery, 
was  good ;  and  he  had  at  his  service  the  generals  and 
statesmen  formed  in  the  freer  and  bolder  epoch  that 
had  ended  with  his  accession.  Among  them  was 
Jean   Baptiste    Colbert,    formerly  the   intendant  of 

1  (Euvres  de  Louis  XIV.,  ii.  283. 

2  Bossuet,  Politique  tiree  de  I'Ecriiure  sainte,  670  (1843). 


1664.]  COLBERT.  233 

Mazarin's  household,  —  a  man  whose  energies 
matched  his  talents,  and  who  had  preserved  his 
rectitude  in  the  midst  of  corruption.  It  was  a  hard 
task  that  Colbert  imposed  on  his  proud  and  violent 
nature  to  serve  the  imperious  King,  morbidly  jealous 
of  his  authority,  and  resolved  to  accept  no  initiative 
but  his  own.  He  must  counsel  while  seeming  to 
receive  counsel,  and  lead  while  seeming  to  follow. 
The  new  minister  bent  himself  to  the  task,  and  the 
nation  reaped  the  profit.  A  vast  system  of  reform 
was  set  in  action  amid  the  outcries  of  nobles,  finan- 
ciers, churchmen,  and  all  who  profited  by  abuses. 
The  methods  of  this  reform  were  trenchant  and  some- 
times violent,  and  its  principles  were  not  always  in 
accord  with  those  of  modem  economic  science;  but 
the  good  that  resulted  was  incalculable.  The 
burdens  of  the  laboring  classes  were  lightened,  the 
public  revenues  increased,  and  the  wholesale  plunder 
of  the  public  money  was  arrested  with  a  strong  hand. 
Laws  were  reformed  and  codified;  feudal  tyranny, 
which  still  subsisted  in  many  quarters,  was  repressed; 
agriculture  and  productive  industr}^  of  all  kinds  were 
encouraged,  roads  and  canals  opened,  trade  was 
stimulated,  a  commercial  marine  created,  and  a 
powerful  navy  formed  as  if  by  magic. ^ 

It  is  in  his  commercial,  industrial,  and  colonial 
policy  that  the  profound  defects  of  the  great  minis- 

^  On  Colbert,  see  Cle'ment,  Histoire  de  Colbert;  Clement,  Lettres 
et  Memoires  de  Colbert;  Cheruel,  Administration  monarchique  en 
France,  ii.  chap.  vi. ;  Henri  Martin,  Histoire  de  France,  xiii.,  etc. 


234  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1664. 

ter's  system  are  most  apparent.  It  was  a  system  of 
authority,  monopoly,  and  exclusion,  in  which  the 
government,  and  not  the  individual,  acted  always 
the  foremost  part.  Upright,  incorruptible,  ardent  for 
the  public  good,  inflexible,  arrogant,  and  domineer- 
ing, he  sought  to  drive  France  into  paths  of  prosper- 
ity, and  create  colonies  by  the  energy  of  an  imperial 
will.  He  feared,  and  with  reason,  that  the  want  of 
enterprise  and  capital  among  the  merchants  would 
prevent  the  broad  and  immediate  results  at  which  he 
aimed;  and  to  secure  tliese  results  he  established  a 
series  of  great  trading  corporations,  in  which  the 
principles  of  privilege  and  exclusion  were  pushed  to 
their  utmost  limits.  Prominent  among  them  was 
the  Company  of  the  West.  The  King  signed  the 
edict  creating  it  on  the  twenty-fourth  of  May,  1GG4. 
Any  person  in  the  kingdom  or  out  of  it  might  become 
a  partner  by  subscribing,  within  a  certain  time,  not 
less  than  three  thousand  francs.  France  was  a  mere 
patch  on  the  map,  compared  to  the  vast  domains  of 
the  new  association.  Western  Africa  from  Cape 
Verd  to  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  South  America 
between  the  Amazon  and  the  Orinoco,  Cayenne,  the 
Antilles,  and  all  New  France,  from  Hudson's  Bay  to 
Virginia  and  Florida,  were  bestowed  on  it  forever,  to 
be  held  of  the  Crown  on  the  simple  condition  of 
faith  and  homage.  As,  according  to  the  edict,  the 
glory  of  God  was  the  chief  object  in  view,  the  com- 
pany was  required  to  supply  its  possessions  with  a 
sufficient  number  of  priests,  and  diligently  to  exclude 


1664-68.]  MONOPOLY.  235 

all  teachers  of  false  doctrine.  It  was  empowered  to 
build  forts  and  war-sliips,  cast  cannon,  wage  war, 
make  peace,  establish  courts,  appoint  judges,  and 
otherwise  to  act  as  sovereign  within  its  own  domains. 
A  monopoly  of  trade  was  granted  it  for  forty  years. ^ 
Sugar  from  the  Antilles  and  furs  from  Canada  were 
the  chief  source  of  expected  profit;  and  Africa  was 
to  supply  the  slaves  to  raise  the  sugar.  Scarcely  ^^•as 
the  grand  machine  set  in  motion,  when  its  directors 
betrayed  a  narrowness  and  blindness  of  policy  which 
boded  the  enterprise  no  good.  Canada  was  a  chief 
sufferer.  Once  more,  bound  hand  and  foot,  she  was 
handed  over  to  a  selfish  league  of  merchants,  — 
monopoly  in  trade,  monopoly  in  religion,  monopoly 
in  government.  Nobody  but  the  company  had  a 
right  to  bring  her  the  necessaries  of  life ;  and  nobody 
but  the  company  had  a  right  to  exercise  the  traffic 
which  alone  could  give  her  the  means  of  paying  for 
these  necessaries.  Moreover,  the  supplies  which  it 
brought  were  msufficient,  and  the  prices  which  it 
demanded  were  exorbitant.  It  was  throttling  its 
wretched  victim.  The  Canadian  merchants  remon- 
strated.2  It  was  clear  that  if  the  colony  was  to  live, 
the  system  must  be  changed;  and  a  change  was 
accordingly  ordered.  The  company  gave  up  its 
monopoly  of  the  fur-trade,  but  reserved  the  right  to 
levy  a  duty  of  one-fourth  of  the  beaver-skins,  and 
one-tenth  of  the  moose-skins;  and   it  also  reserved 

^  Edit  d'Etahlissement  de  la  Compagnie  des  Indes  Occidentales, 
2  Lettre  du  Conseil  Souverain  a  Colbert,  1668. 


236  ROYAL   INTERVENTION.  [1664-66. 

the  entire  trade  of  Tadoussac,  —  that  is  to  say,  the 
trade  of  all  the  tribes  between  the  lower  St. 
Lawrence  and  Hudson's  Bay.  It  retained,  besides, 
the  exclusive  right  of  transporting  furs  in  its  own 
ships,  —  thus  controlling  the  commerce  of  Canada, 
and  discouraging,  or  rather  extinguishing,  the  enter- 
prise of  Canadian  merchants.  On  its  part,  it  was 
required  to  pay  governors,  judges,  and  all  the  colonial 
officials  out  of  the  duties  which  it  levied.  ^ 

Yet  the  King  had  the  prosperity  of  Canada  at 
heart;  and  he  proceeded  to  show  his  interest  in  her 
after  a  manner  hardly  consistent  with  his  late  action 
in  handing  her  over  to  a  mercenary  guardian.  In 
fact,  he  acted  as  if  she  had  still  remained  under  his 
paternal  care.  He  had  just  conferred  the  right  of 
naming  a  governor  and  intendant  upon  the  new 
company ;  but  he  now  assumed  it  himself,  the  com- 
pany, with  a  just  sense  of  its  own  unfitness,  readily 
consenting  to  this  suspension  of  one  of  its  most 
important  privileges.  Daniel  de  R^my,  Sieur  de 
Courcelle,  was  appointed  governor,  and  Jean  Baptiste 
Talon    intendant. 2    The    nature   of    this    duplicate 

^  Arret  du  Conseil  du  Roy  qui  accorde  a  la  Compagnie  le  quart  des 
castors,  le  dixieme  des  orignaux  et  la  traite  de  Tadoussac :  Listruction 
de  Monseigneur  de  Tracy  et  a  Messieurs  le  Gouverneur  et  I' Intendant. 

This  company  prospered  as  little  as  the  rest  of  Colbert's  trad- 
ing companies.  Within  ten  years  it  lost  3,523,000  livres,  besides 
blighting  the  colonies  placed  under  its  control.  {Becherckes  sur  les 
Finances,  cited  by  Clement,  Histoire  de  Colbert.) 

''  Commission  de  Lietitenant  General  en  Canada,  etc.,  pour  M.  de 
Courcelle,  23  Mars,  1665;  Commission  d'Intendant  de  la  Justice, 
Police,  et  Finances  en  Canada,  etc.,  pour  M.  Talon,  23  Mars,  1665. 


1665.]  ARRIVAL   OF   TRACY.  237 

government  will  appear  hereafter.  But  before 
appointing  rulers  for  Canada,  the  King  had  appointed 
a  representative  of  the  Crown  for  all  his  American 
domains.  The  Mar^chal  d'Estrades  had  for  some 
time  held  the  title  of  viceroy  for  America ;  and  as  he 
could  not  fulfil  the  duties  of  that  office,  being  at  the 
time  ambassador  in  Holland,  the  Marquis  de  Tracy 
was  sent  in  his  place,  with  the  title  of  lieutenant- 
general.^ 

Canada  at  this  time  was  an  object  of  very  consid- 
erable attention  at  court,  and  especially  in  what 
was  known  as  the  parti  devot.  The  Relations  of  the 
Jesuits,  appealing  equally  to  the  spirit  of  religion 
and  the  spirit  of  romantic  adventure,  had  for  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century  been  the  favorite  reading 
of  the  devout,  and  the  visit  of  Laval  at  court  had 
greatly  stimulated  the  interest  they  had  kindled. 
The  letters  of  Argenson,  and  especially  of  Avaugour, 
had  shown  the  vast  political  possibilities  of  the  young 
colony,  and  opened  a  vista  of  future  glories  alike 
for  Church  and  for  King. 

So,  when  Tracy  set  sail  he  found  no  lack  of  fol- 
lowers. A  throng  of  young  nobles  embarked  with 
him,  eager  to  explore  the  marvels  and  mysteries  of 
the  western  world.  The  King  gave  him  two  hun- 
dred soldiers  of  the  regiment  of  Carignan-Salieres, 
and  promised  that  a  thousand  more  should  follow. 
After  spending  more  than  a  year  in  the  West  Indies, 

1  Commission  de  Lieutenant  General  de  I'Aynerique  Meridionale  et 
Septenfrinnale  pour  M.  Prouvilie  de  Tracy,  19  Nov.,  166.3. 


238  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

where,  as  Mother  Mary  of  the  Incarnation  expresses 
it,  "he  performed,  marvels  and  reduced  everybody  to 
obedience,"  he  at  length  sailed  up  the  St.  Law- 
rence, and  on  the  thirtieth  of  June,  1665,  anchored  in 
the  basin  of  Quebec.  The  broad,  white  standard, 
blazoned  with  the  arms  of  France,  proclaimed  the 
representative  of  royalty;  and  Point  Levi  and  Cape 
Diamond  and  the  distant  Cape  Tourmente  roared 
back  the  sound  of  the  saluting  cannon.  All  Quebec 
was  on  the  ramparts  or  at  the  landing-place,  and  all 
eyes  were  strained  at  the  two  vessels  as  they  slowly 
emptied  their  crowded  decks  into  the  boats  along- 
side. The  boats  at  length  drew  near,  and  the 
lieutenant-general  and  his  suite  landed  on  the  quay 
with  a  pomp  such  as  Quebec  had  never  seen  before. 

Tracy  was  a  veteran  of  sixty-two,  portly  and  tall, 
"one  of  the  largest  men  I  ever  saw,"  writes  Mother 
Mary;  but  he  was  sallow  with  disease,  for  fever  had 
seized  him,  and  it  had  fared  ill  with  him  on  the  long 
voyage.  The  Chevalier  de  Chaumont  walked  at  his 
side,  and  young  nobles  surrounded  him,  gorgeous  in 
lace  and  ribbons  and  majestic  in  leonine  wigs. 
Twenty-four  guards  in  the  King's  livery  led  the  way, 
followed  by  four  pages  and  six  valets ;  ^  and  thus, 
while  the  Frenchmen  shouted  and  the  Indians  stared, 
the  august  procession  threaded  the  streets  of  the 
Lower  Town,  and  climbed  the  steep  pathway  that 
scaled  the  cliffs  above.     Breathing  hard,  they  reached 

1  Juchereau  says  that  this  was  his  constant  attendance  when  he 
went  abroad. 


1665.]  THE  REINFORCEMENT.  239 

the  top,  passed  on  the  left  the  dilapidated  walls  of 
the  fort  and  the  shed  of  mingled  wood  and  masonry 
which  then  bore  the  name  of  the  Castle  of  St.  Louis ; 
passed  on  the  right  the  old  house  of  Couillard  and 
the  site  of  Laval's  new  seminary,  and  soon  reached 
the  square  betwixt  the  Jesuit  college  and  the  cathe- 
dral. The  bells  were  ringing  in  a  frenzy  of  wel- 
come. Laval  in  pontificals,  surrounded  by  priests  and 
Jesuits,  stood  waiting  to  receive  the  deputy  of  the 
King ;  and  as  he  greeted  Tracy  and  offered  him  the 
holy  water,  he  looked  with  anxious  curiosity  to  see 
what  manner  of  man  he  was.  The  signs  were  auspi- 
cious. The  deportment  of  the  lieutenant-general  left 
nothing  to  desire.  A  prie-dieu  had  been  placed  for 
him.  He  declined  it.  They  offered  him  a  cushion, 
but  he  would  not  have  it;  and,  fevered  as  he  was, 
he  knelt  on  the  bare  pavement  with  a  devotion  that 
edified  every  beholder.  Te  Deum  was  sung,  and  a 
day  of  rejoicing  followed. 

There  was  good  cause.  Canada,  it  was  plain,  was 
not  to  be  wholly  abandoned  to  a  trading  company. 
Louis  XIV.  was  resolved  that  a  new  France  should 
be  added  to  the  old.  Soldiers,  settlers,  horses,  sheep, 
cattle,  young  women  for  wives,  were  all  sent  out  in 
abundance  by  his  paternal  benignity.  Before  the 
season  was  over,  about  two  thousand  persons  had 
landed  at  Quebec  at  the  royal  charge.  "At  length," 
writes  Mother  Juchereau,  "  our  joy  was  completed  by 
the  arrival  of  tAvo  vessels  with  Monsieur  de  Courcelle, 
our  governor;  Monsieur  Talon,    our  intendant,  and 


240  ROYAL   INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

the  last  companies  of  the  regiment  of  Carignan." 
More  state  and  splendor,  more  young  nobles,  more 
guards  and  valets:  for  Courcelle,  too,  says  the  same 
chronicler,  "had  a  superb  train;  and  Monsieur 
Talon,  who  naturally  loves  glory,  forgot  nothing 
which  could  do  honor  to  the  King."  Thus  a  sun- 
beam from  the  court  fell  for  a  moment  on  the  rock  of 
Quebec.  Yet  all  was  not  sunshine;  for  the  voyage 
had  been  a  tedious  one,  and  disease  had  broken  out 
in  the  ships.  That  which  bore  Talon  had  been  a 
hundred  and  seventeen  days  at  sea,^  and  others  were 
hardly  more  fortunate.  The  hospital  was  crowded 
with  the  sick;  so,  too,  were  the  Church  and  the 
neighboring  houses ;  and  the  nuns  were  so  spent  with 
their  labors  that  seven  of  them  were  brought  to  the 
point  of  death.  The  priests  were  busied  in  convert- 
ing the  Huguenots,  a  number  of  whom  were  detected 
among  the  soldiers  and  emigrants.  One  of  them 
proved  refractory,  declaring  with  oaths  that  he  would 
never  renounce  his  faith.  Falling  dangerously  ill, 
he  was  carried  to  the  hospital,  where  Mother 
Catherine  de  Saint- Augustin  bethought  her  of  a  plan 
of  conversion.  She  ground  to  powder  a  small  piece 
of  a  bone  of  Father  Brebeuf,  the  Jesuit  martyr,  and 
secretly  mixed  the  sacred  dust  with  the  patient's 
gruel;  whereupon,  says  Mother  Juchereau,  "this 
intractable  man  forthwith  became  gentle  as  an  angel, 
begged   to   be  instructed,   embraced   the   faith,   and 

1   Tahn  nu  MiniMrc,  4  Ort.,  1665. 


1665.]  TRACY'S   DEVOTION.  241 

abjured  his  errors  publicly  with  an  admirable 
fervor."! 

Two  or  three  years  before,  the  Church  of  Quebec 
had  received  as  a  gift  from  the  Pope  the  bodies  or 
bones  of  two  saints,  —  Saint  Flavian  and  Saint 
Fdlicit^.  They  were  enclosed  in  four  large  coffers 
or  reliquaries,  and  a  grand  procession  was  now 
ordered  in  their  honor.  Tracy,  Courcelle,  Talon, 
and  the  agent  of  the  company  bore  the  canopy  of  the 
Host.  Then  came  the  four  coffers  on  four  decorated 
litters,  carried  by  the  principal  ecclesiastics.  Laval 
followed  in  pontificals.  Forty-seven  priests,  and  a 
long  file  of  officers,  nobles,  soldiers,  and  inhabitants, 
followed  the  precious  relics  amid  the  sound  of  music 
and  the  roar  of  cannon. ^ 

"It  is  a  ravishing  thing,"  says  Mother  Mary,  "to 
see  how  marvellously  exact  is  Monsieur  de  Tracy 
at  all  these  holy  ceremonies,  where  he  is  always  the 
first  to  come,  for  he  would  not  lose  a  single  moment 
of  them.  He  has  been  seen  in  church  for  six  hours 
together,  without  once  going  out."  But  while  the 
lieutenant-general  thus  edified  the  colony,  he 
betrayed  no  lack  of  qualities  equally  needful  in  his 
position.  In  Canada,  as  in  the  West  Indies,  he 
showed  both  vigor  and  conduct.  First  of  all,  he  had 
been  ordered  to  subdue  or  destroy  the  Iroquois ;  and 
the  regiment  of  Carignan-Salieres  was  the  weapon 

1  Le  Mercier  tells  the  same  story  in  tlie  Relation  of  1665. 

2  Compare  Marie  de  rincarnation,  Lettre  16  Oct.,  1600,  with  La 
Tour,  Vie  de  Laval,  chap.  x. 

VOL.  I.  — 16 


242  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

placed  in  his  hands  for  this  end.  Four  companies 
of  this  corps  had  arrived  early  in  the  season;  four 
more  came  with  Tracy,  more  yet  with  Salieres, 
their  colonel,  —  and  now  the  number  was  complete. 
As  with  slouched  hat  and  plume,  bandoleer,  and 
shouldered  firelock,  these  bronzed  veterans  of  the 
Turkish  wars  marched  at  the  tap  of  drum  through 
the  narrow  street,  or  mounted  the  rugged  way  that 
led  up  to  the  fort,  the  inhabitants  gazed  with  a  sense 
of  profound  relief.  Tame  Indians  from  the  neigh- 
boring missions,  wild  Indians  from  the  woods,  stared 
in  silent  wonder  at  their  new  defenders.  Their 
numbers,  their  discipline,  their  uniform,  and  their 
martial  bearing  filled  the  savage  beholders  with 
admiration. 

Carignan-Salieres  was  the  first  regiment  of  regular 
troops  ever  sent  to  America  by  the  French  govern- 
ment. It  was  raised  in  Savoy  by  the  Prince  of 
Carignan  in  1644,  but  was  soon  employed  in  the 
service  of  France;  where,  in  1652,  it  took  a  con- 
spicuous part,  on  the  side  of  the  King,  in  the  battle 
with  Condd  and  the  Fronde  at  the  Porte  St.  Antoine. 
After  the  peace  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  Prince  of 
Carignan,  unable  to  support  the  regiment,  gave  it  to 
the  King,  and  it  was,  for  the  first  time,  incorporated 
into  the  French  armies.  In  1664  it  distinguished 
itself,  as  part  of  the  allied  force  of  France,  in  the 
Austrian  war  against  the  TurlvS.  In  the  next  year 
it  was  ordered  to  America,  along  with  the  fragment 
of  a  regiment  formed  of  Germans,  the  whole  being 


1665.]  A  HOLY  WAR.  243 

placed  under  the  command  of  Colonel  de  Salieres. 
Hence  its  double  name.^ 

Fifteen  heretics  were  discovered  in  its  ranks,  and 
quickly  converted. ^  Then  the  new  crusade  was 
preached,  —  the  crusade  against  the  Iroquois,  enemies 
of  God  and  tools  of  the  Devil.  The  soldiers  and 
the  people  were  filled  with  a  zeal  half  warlike  and 
half  religious.  "They  are  made  to  understand," 
writes  Mother  Mary,  "  that  this  is  a  holy  war,  all  for 
the  glory  of  God  and  the  salvation  of  souls.  The 
fathers  are  doing  wonders  in  inspiring  them  with 
true  sentiments  of  piety  and  devotion.  Fully  five 
hundred  soldiers  have  taken  the  scapulary  of  the 
Holy  Virgin.  It  is  we  [the  Ursulines],  who  make 
them ;  it  is  a  real  pleasure  to  do  such  work ; "  and 
she  proceeds  to  relate  a  "beau  miracle,"  by  which 
God  made  known  his  satisfaction  at  the  fervor  of 
his  military  servants. 


1  For  a  long  notice  of  the  regiment  of  Carignan-Saliferes 
(Lorraine),  see  Susane,  Ancienne  Infanterie  Frangaise,  v.  236.  The 
portion  of  it  which  returned  to  France  from  Canada  formed  a 
nucleus  for  the  reconstruction  of  the  regiment,  which,  under  the 
name  of  the  regiment  of  Lorraine,  did  not  cease  to  exist  as  a  sepa- 
rate organization  till  1794.  When  it  came  to  Canada  it  consisted, 
says  Susane,  of  about  a  thousand  men,  besides  about  two  hundred 
of  the  other  regiment  incorporated  with  it.  Compare  Memoire  du 
Roy  pour  servir  d'instruction  au  Sieur  Talon,  which  corresponds  very 
nearly  with  Susane's  statement. 

■■^  Besides  these,  there  was  Berthier,  a  captain.  "  Voilk,"  writes 
Talon  to  the  King,  "  le  16me  converti ;  ainsi  votre  Majeste  mois- 
eonne  deja  a  pleines  mains  de  la  gloire  pour  Dieu,  et  pour  elle  bien 
de  la  renomme'e  dans  toute  I'etendue  de  la  Chretiente."  {Lettre  du 
7  Oct.,  1665.) 


244  ROYAL  INTERVENTION.  [1665. 

The  secular  motives  for  the  war  were  in  themselves 
strong  enough;  for  the  growth  of  the  colony  abso- 
lutely demanded  the  cessation  of  Iroquois  raids,  and 
the  French  had  begun  to  learn  the  lesson  that  in  the 
case  of  hostile  Indians  no  good  can  come  of  attempts 
to  conciliate,  unless  respect  is  first  imposed  by  a 
sufficient  castigation.  It  is  true  that  the  writers  of 
the  time  paint  Iroquois  hostilities  in  their  worst 
colors.  In  the  innumerable  letters  which  Mother 
Mary  of  the  Incarnation  sent  home  every  autumn, 
by  the  returning  ships,  she  spared  no  means  to  gain 
the  sympathy  and  aid  of  the  devout;  and,  with 
similar  motives,  the  Jesuits  in  their  printed  Relations 
took  care  to  extenuate  nothing  of  the  miseries  which 
the  pious  colony  endured.  Avaugour  too,  in  urg- 
ing the  sending  out  of  a  strong  force  to  fortify  and 
hold  the  country,  had  advised  that,  in  order  to  furnish 
a  pretext  and  disarm  the  jealousy  of  the  English  and 
Dutch,  exaggerated  accounts  should  be  given  of 
danger  from  the  side  of  the  savage  confederates. 
Yet,  with  every  allowance,  these  dangers  and  suffer- 
ings were  sufficiently  great. 

The  three  upper  nations  of  the  Iroquois  were  com- 
paratively pacific;  but  the  two  lower  nations,  the 
Mohawks  and  Oneidas,  were  persistently  hostile; 
making  inroads  into  the  colony  by  way  of  Lake 
Champlain  and  the  Richelieu,  murdering  and  scalp- 
ing, and  then  vanishing  like  ghosts.  Tracy's  first 
step  was  to  send  a  strong  detachment  to  the  Richelieu 
to  build  a  picket  fort  below  the  rapids  of  Charably, 


1665.]  PACIFIC   OVERTURES.  245 

which  take  their  name  from  that  of  the  officer  in 
command.  An  officer  named  Sorel  soon  afterwards 
built  a  second  fort  on  the  site  of  the  abandoned 
palisade  work  built  by  Montmagny,  at  the  mouth  of 
the  river,  where  the  town  of  Sorel  now  stands ;  and 
Salieres,  colonel  of  the  regiment,  added  a  third  fort, 
two  or  three  leagues  above  Chambly.i  These  forts 
could  not  wholly  bar  the  passage  against  the  nimble 
and  wily  warriors  who  might  pass  them  in  the  night, 
shouldering  their  canoes  through  the  woods.  A 
blow,  direct  and  hard,  was  needed,  and  Tracy 
prepared  to  strike  it. 

Late  in  the  season  an  embassy  from  the  three 
upper  nations  —  the  Onondagas,  Cajmgas,  and 
Senecas  —  arrived  at  Quebec,  led  by  Garaconti^,  a 
famous  chief  whom  the  Jesuits  had  won  over,  and 
who  proved  ever  after  a  stanch  friend  of  the  French. 
They  brought  back  the  brave  Charles  Le  INIoyne  of 
Montreal,  whom  they  had  captured  some  three 
months  before,  and  now  restored  as  a  jDeace-off ering, 
taking  credit  to  themselves  that  "  not  even  one  of  his 
nails  had  been  torn  out,  nor  any  part  of  his  body 
burnt.  "2  Garacontie  made  a  peace  speech,  which,  as 
rendered  by  the  Jesuits,  was  an  admirable  specimen  of 
Iroquois  eloquence ;  but  while  joining  hands  with  him 
and  his  companions,  the  French  still  urged  on  their 
preparations  to  chastise  the  contumacious  INIohawks. 

1  See  the  map  in  the  Relation  of  10G5.  Tlie  accompanying  text 
of  the  Relation  is  incorrect. 

2  Explanation  of  the  eleven  Presents  of  the  Iroquois  Ambassadors^ 
N.  Y.  Colonial  Docs.,  ix.  37. 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

1666,  1667. 

THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED. 

Courcelle's  March  :  his  Failure  and  Keturn.  —  Couhcellb 
AND  THE  Jesuits.  —  Mohawk  Treachery.  —  Tract's  Expedi- 
tion.—  Burning  of  tue  Mohawk  Towns.  —  French  and  Eng- 
lish.—  DoLLiER  de  Casson  AT  St.  Anne.  —  Peace. — Thb 
Jesuits  and  the  Iroquois. 

The  governor,  Conrcelle,  says  Father  Le  Mercier, 
"breathed  nothmg  but  war,"  and  was  bent  on  imme- 
diate action.  He  was  for  the  present  subordinate  to 
Tracy,  who,  however,  forbore  to  cool  his  ardor,  and 
allowed  him  to  proceed.  The  result  was  an  enter- 
prise bold  to  rashness.  Courcelle,  with  about  five 
hundred  men,  prepared  to  march  in  the  depth  of  a 
Canadian  winter  to  the  Mohawk  towns,  —  a  distance 
estimated  at  three  hundred  leagues.  Those  who 
knew  the  country  vainly  urged  the  risks  and  diffi- 
culties of  the  attempt.  The  adventurous  governor 
held  fast  to  his  purpose,  and  only  waited  till  the  St. 
Lawrence  should  be  well  frozen.  Early  in  January, 
it  was  a  solid  floor;  and  on  the  ninth  the  march 
began.  Officers  and  men  stopped  at  Sillery,  and 
knelt  in  the  little  mission  chapel  before  the  shrine  of 


1666.]  COURCELLE'S  MARCH.  247 

Saint  Michael,  to  ask  the  protection  and  aid  of  the 
warlike  archangel;  then  they  resumed  their  course, 
and,  with  their  snow-shoes  tied  at  their  backs, 
walked  with  difficulty  and  toil  over  the  bare  and 
slippery  ice.  A  keen  wind  swept  the  river,  and  the 
fierce  cold  gnawed  them  to  the  bone.  Ears,  noses, 
fingers,  hands,  and  knees  were  frozen;  some  fell 
in  torpor,  and  were  dragged  on  by  their  comrades 
to  the  shivering  bivouac.  When,  after  a  march  of 
ninety  miles,  they  reached  Three  Rivers,  a  consid- 
erable number  were  disabled,  and  had  to  be  left 
behind;  but  others  joined  them  from  the  garrison, 
and  they  set  out  again.  Ascending  the  Richelieu, 
and  passing  the  new  forts  at  Sorel  and  Chamljly, 
they  reached  at  the  end  of  the  month  the  third  fort, 
called  Ste.  Th^rese.  On  the  thirtieth  they  left  it, 
and  continued  their  march  up  the  frozen  stream. 
About  two  hundred  of  them  were  Canadians,  and 
of  these  seventy  were  old  Indian-fighters  from 
Montreal,  versed  in  wood-craft,  seasoned  to  the 
climate,  and  trained  among  dangers  and  alarms. 
Courcelle  quickly  learned  their  value,  and  his  "  Blue 
Coats,"  as  he  called  them,  were  always  placed  in  the 
van.^  Here,  wrapped  in  their  coarse  blue  capotes, 
with  blankets  and  provisions  strapped  at  their  backs, 
they  strode  along  on  snow-shoes,  which  recent  storms 
had  made  indisjDensable.  The  regulars  followed  as 
they  could.  They  were  not  yet  the  tough  and 
experienced  woodsmen  that  they  and  their  descend- 

^  DoUier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  a.  d.  1665,  1666. 


248  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

ants  afterwards  became ;  and  their  snow-shoes  embar- 
rassed them,  burdened  as  they  were  with  the  heavy- 
loads  which  all  carried  alike,  from  Courcelle  to  the 
lowest  private. 

Lake  Champlain  lay  glaring  in  the  winter  sun,  a 
sheet  of  spotless  snow;  and  the  wa^^  ridges  of  the 
Adii'ondacks  bordered  the  dazzling  landscape  with 
the  cold  gray  of  their  denuded  forests.  The  long 
procession  of  weary  men  crept  slowly  on  under  the 
lee  of  the  shore ;  and  when  night  came  they  bivouacked 
by  squads  among  the  trees,  dug  away  the  snow  with 
their  snow-shoes,  piled  it  in  a  bank  around  them, 
built  their  fire  in  the  middle,  and  crouched  about  it 
on  beds  of  spruce  or  hemlock,  ^  —  while,  as  they  lay 
close  packed  for  mutual  warmth,  the  winter  sky 
arched  them  like  a  vault  of  burnished  steel,  sparkling 
with  the  cold  diamond  lustre  of  its  myriads  of  stars. 
This  arctic  serenity  of  the  elements  was  varied  at 
times  by  heavy  snow-storms,  and  before  they  reached 
their  journey's  end  the  earth  and  the  ice  were  buried 
to  the  unusual  depth  of  four  feet.  From  Lake 
Champlain  they  passed  to  Lake  George  ^  and  the 
frigid  glories  of  its  snow-wrai')ped  mountains,  thence 
crossed  to  the  Hudson,  and  groped  their  way  through 
the  woods  in  search  of  the  Mohawk  towns.     They 

1  One  of  the  men,  telling  the  story  of  their  sufferings  to  Daniel 
Gookin,  of  Massachusetts,  indicated  this  as  their  mode  of  encamp- 
ing.    See  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.  first  series,  i.  101. 

2  Carte  des  ijrands  Incs,  Ontario  et  autres  .  .  .  et  des  pai/s  traversez 
par  MM.  de  Tracy  et  Courcelle  pour  aller  attaquer  les  ar/nies  [M.ohaw'ks], 
1666. 


1666.]  FAILURE  OF  COURCELLE.  249 

soon  went  astray;  for  thirty  Algonquins,  whom  they 
had  taken  as  guides,  had  found  the  means  of  a  grand 
debauch  at  Fort  Ste.  Thdrese,  drunk  themselves  into 
helplessness,  and  lingered  behind.  Thus  Courcelle 
and  his  men  mistook  the  path,  and,  marching  by  way 
of  Saratoga  Lake  and  Long  Lake,^  found  themselves, 
on  Saturday  the  twentieth  of  February,  close  to  the 
little  Dutch  hamlet  of  Corlaer,  or  Schenectady. 
Here  the  chief  man  in  authority  told  them  that  most 
of  the  Mohawks  and  Oneidas  had  gone  to  war  with 
another  tribe.  They  however  caught  a  few  strag- 
glers, and  had  a  smart  skirmish  with  a  party  of 
warriors,  losing  an  officer  and  several  men.  Half 
frozen  and  half  starved,  they  encamped  in  the  neigh- 
boring woods,  where,  on  Sunday,  three  envoys 
appeared  from  Albany,  to  demand  why  they  had 
invaded  the  territories  of  his  Royal  Highness  the 
Duke  of  York.  It  was  now  that  they  learned  for  the 
first  time  that  the  New  Netherlands  had  passed  into 
English  hands,  a  change  which  boded  no  good  to 
Canada.  The  envoys  seemed  to  take  their  explana- 
tions in  good  part,  made  them  a  present  of  wine  and 
provisions,  and  allowed  them  to  buy  further  supplies 
from  the  Dutch  of  Schenectady.  They  even  invited 
them  to  enter  the  village,  but  Courcelle  declined,  — 
partly  because  the  place  could  not  hold  them  all,  and 
partly  because  he  feared  that  his  men,  once  seated  in 
a  chimney-corner,  could  never  be  induced  to  leave  it. 
Their  position  was  cheerless  enough ;  for  the  vast 

1  Carte  .  .  .  des  pays  traversez  par  MM.  de  Tract/  et  Courcelle,  etc. 


250  THE  MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1666. 

beds  of  snow  around  them  were  soaking  slowly  under 
a  sullen  rain,  and  there  was  danger  that  the  lakes 
raigfht  thaw  and  cut  off  their  retreat.  "  Ye  Mohaukes, " 
says  the  old  English  report  of  the  affair,  "were  all 
gone  to  their  Castles  with  resolution  to  fight  it  out 
against  the  french,  who,  being  refresht  and  supplyed 
w*''  the  aforesaid  provisions,  made  a  shew  of  marching 
towards  the  Mohaukes  Castles,  but  with  faces  about, 
and  great  sylence  and  dilligence,  return'd  towards 
Cannada."  "Surely,"  observes  the  narrator,  "so 
bould  and  hardy  an  attempt  hath  not  hapned  in  any 
age."^  The  end  hardly  answered  to  the  beginning. 
The  retreat,  which  began  on  Sunday  night,  was 
rather  precipitate.  The  Mohawks  hovered  about 
their  rear,  and  took  a  few  prisoners ;  but  famine  and 
cold  proved  more  deadly  foes,  and  sixty  men  perished 
before  they  reached  the  shelter  of  Fort  Ste.  Thdrese. 
On  the  eighth  of  March,  Courcelle  came  to  the 
neighboring  fort  of  St.  Louis  or  Chambly.  Here  he 
found  the  Jesuit  Albanel  acting  as  chaplain;  and, 
being  in  great  ill  humor,  he  charged  him  with  caus- 
ing the  failure  of  the  expedition  by  detaining  the 
Algonquin  guides.  This  singular  notion  took  such 
possession  of  him,  that,  when  a  few  days  after  he 
met  the  Jesuit  Fr^min  at  Three  Rivers,  he  embraced 
him  ironically,  saying,  at  the  same  time,  "  My  father, 
I  am  the  unluckiest  gentleman  in  the  world;  and 

1  A  Relation  of  the  Govern'',  of  Cannada, his  March  u-ith600  Volun- 
teirs  into  y"  Territorj/es  of  Ills  lioi/all  Uixjhnesse  the  Duke  of  Yorke  in 
America.    See  Doc.  Hist.  N.  Y.  i.  71. 


1666.]  MOHAWK  TREACHERY.  251 

you,  and  the  rest  of  you,  are  the  cause  of  it."  ^  The 
pious  Tracy  and  the  prudent  Talon  tried  to  disarm 
his  suspicions,  and  with  such  success  that  he  gave  up 
an  intention  he  had  entertained  of  discarding  his 
Jesuit  confessor,  and  forgot  or  forgave  the  imagined 
wrong. 

Unfortunate  as  this  expedition  was,  it  produced 
a  strong  effect  on  the  Iroquois  by  convincing  them 
that  their  forest  homes  were  no  safe  asylum  from 
French  attacks.  In  May,  the  Senecas  sent  an  embassy 
of  peace;  and  the  other  nations,  including  the 
Mohawks,  soon  followed.  Tracy,  on  his  part,  sent 
the  Jesuit  Bechefer  to  learn  on  the  spot  the  real 
temper  of  the  savages,  and  ascertain  whether  peace 
could  safely  be  made  with  them.  The  Jesuit  was 
scarcely  gone  when  news  came  that  a  party  of  officers 
hunting  near  the  outlet  of  Lake  Champlain  had  been 
set  upon  by  the  Mohawks,  and  that  seven  of  them 
had  been  captured  or  killed.  Among  the  captured 
was  Leroles,  a  cousin  of  Tracy;  and  among  the 
killed  was  a  young  gentleman  named  Chasy,  his 
nephew. 

On  this  the  Jesuit  envoy  was  recalled;  twenty- 
four  Iroquois  deputies  were  seized  and  imprisoned; 
and  Sorel,  captain  in  the  regiment  of  Carignan,  was 
sent  with  three  hundred  men  to  chastise  the  per- 
fidious Mohawks.  If,  as  it  seems,  he  was  expected 
to  attack  their  fortified  towns  or  "castles,"  as  the 
English  call  them,  his  force  was  too   small.     This 

^  Journal  des  Jesuites,  Mars,  IGGO. 


252  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

time,  however,  there  was  no  fighting.  At  two  days 
from  his  journey's  end,  Sorel  met  the  famous  chief 
called  the  Flemish  Bastard,  bringing  back  Leroles 
and  his  fellow-captives,  and  charged,  as  he  alleged, 
to  offer  full  satisfaction  for  the  murder  of  Chasy. 
Sorel  believed  him,  retraced  his  course,  and  with 
the  Bastard  in  his  train  returned  to  Quebec. 

Quebec  was  full  of  Iroquois  deputies,  all  bent  on 
peace  or  pretending  to  be  so.  On  tlie  last  day  of 
August  there  was  a  grand  council  in  the  garden  of 
the  Jesuits.  Some  days  later,  Tracy  invited  the 
Flemish  Bastard  and  a  Mohawk  chief  named  Agariata 
to  his  table,  when  allusion  was  made  to  the  murder 
of  Chasy.  On  this  the  Mohawk,  stretching  out  his 
arm,  exclaimed  in  a  braggart  tone,  "  This  is  the  hand 
that  split  the  head  of  that  young  man."  The  indig- 
nation of  the  company  may  be  imagined.  Tracy  told 
his  insolent  guest  that  he  should  never  kill  anybody 
else ;  and  he  was  led  out  and  hanged  in  presence  of 
the  Bastard.  1  There  was  no  more  talk  of  peace. 
Tracy  prepared  to  march  in  person  against  the 
Mohawks  with  all  the  force  of  Canada. 

On  the  day  of  the  Exaltation  of  the  Cross,  "for 
whose  glory,"  says  the  chronicler,  "this  expedition 

1  This  story  rests  chiefly  on  the  authority  of  Nicholas  Perrot, 
M(£iirs  ties  Sauvar/es,  113.  La  I'othcrie  also  tells  it,  with  the  ad- 
dition of  the  chief's  name.  Cohlcn  follows  him.  The  Journal  des 
Jcsiiitcs  mentions  that  the  chief  wlio  led  tlie  murderers  of  Cliasy 
arrived  at  Quebec  on  the  sixth  of  Septemlier.  Marie  de  I'lncarna- 
tioii  mentions  the  hans^ing  of  an  Iroquois  at  Quebec,  late  in  the 
autiinm,  for  violating  the  peace. 


1666.]  MARCH  OF  TRACY.  253 

is  undertaken,"  Tracy  and  Coiircelle  left  Quebec 
with  thirteen  hundred  men.  They  crossed  Lake 
Champlain,  and  launched  their  boats  again  on  the 
waters  of  St.  Sacrament,  now  Lake  George.  It  was 
the  first  of  the  warlike  pageants  that  have  made  that 
fair  scene  historic.  October  had  begun,  and  the 
romantic  wilds  breathed  the  buoyant  life  of  the  most 
inspiring  of  American  seasons,  when  the  blue-jay 
screams  from  the  woods,  the  wild  duck  splashes 
along  the  lake,  and  the  echoes  of  distant  mountains 
prolong  the  quavering  cry  of  the  loon ;  when  weather- 
stained  rocks  are  plumed  with  the  fiery  crimson  of 
the  sumach,  the  claret  hues  of  young  oaks,  the  amber 
and  scarlet  of  the  maple,  and  the  sober  purple  of  the 
ash ;  or  when  gleams  of  sunlight,  shot  aslant  through 
the  rents  of  cool  autumnal  clouds,  chase  fitfully  along 
the  glowing  sides  of  painted  mountains.  Amid  this 
gorgeous  euthanasia  of  the  dying  season,  the  three 
hundred  boats  and  canoes  trailed  in  long  procession 
up  the  lake,  threaded  the  labyrinth  of  the  Narrows, 
—  that  sylvan  fairy-land  of  tufted  islets  and  quiet 
waters,  —  and  landed  at  length  where  Fort  William 
Heniy  was  afterwards  built.  ^ 

About  a  hundred  miles  of  forests,  swamps,  rivers, 
and  mountains  still  lay  between  them  and  the 
Mohawk  towns.  There  seems  to  have  been  an 
Indian  path,  for  this  was  the  ordinary  route  of  the 
Mohawk  and  Oneida  war-parties;  but  the  path  was 
narrow,   broken,   full  of  gullies  and  pitfalls,  crossed 

^  Carte  .  .  .  des  pays  traversez  par  MM,  de  Tracy  et  Courcelle,  etc. 


254  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

by  streams,  and  in  one  place  interrupted  by  a  lake 
which  they  passed  on  rafts.  A  hundred  and  ten 
"Blue  Coats,"  of  Montreal,  led  the  way,  under 
Charles  Le  Moyne;  Repentigny  commanded  the 
levies  from  Quebec.  In  all  there  were  six  hundred 
Canadians,  six  hundred  regulars,  and  a  hundred 
Indians  from  the  missions,  who  ranged  the  woods 
in  front,  flank,  and  rear,  like  hounds  on  the  scent. 
Red  or  white,  Canadians  or  regulars,  all  were  full  of 
zeal.  "It  seems  to  them,"  writes  Mother  Mary, 
"  that  they  are  going  to  lay  siege  to  Paradise,  and 
win  it  and  enter  in,  because  they  are  fighting  for 
religion  and  the  faith.  "^  Their  ardor  was  rudely 
tried.  Officers  as  well  as  men  carried  loads  at  their 
backs,  whence  ensued  a  large  blister  on  the  shoulders 
of  the  Chevalier  de  Chaumont,  in  no  way  used  to  such 
burdens.  Tracy,  old,  heavy,  and  infii-m,  was  inop- 
portunely seized  with  the  gout.  A  Swiss  soldier 
tried  to  carry  him  on  his  shoulders  across  a  rapid 
stream ;  but  midway  his  strength  failed,  and  he  was 
barely  able  to  deposit  his  ponderous  load  on  a  rock. 
A  Huron  came  to  his  aid,  and  bore  Tracy  safely  to 
the  farther  bank.  Courcelle  was  attacked  with 
cramps,  and  had  to  be  carried  for  a  time  like  his 
commander.  Provisions  gave  out,  and  men  and 
officers  grew  faint  with  hunger.  The  Montreal 
soldiers  had  for  chaplain  a  sturdy  priest,  Dollier  de 
Casson,  as  large  as  Tracy  and  far  stronger;  for  the 
incredible  story  is  told  of  him  that  when  in  good 
1  Marie  de  I'lncarnation,  Lettre  du  10  Oct.,  1666. 


1666.]  THE   MOHAWK  TOWNS.  255 

condition  he  could  hold  two  men  seated  on  his 
extended  hands.  ^  Now,  however,  he  was  equal  to 
no  such  exploit,  being  not  only  deprived  of  food,  but 
also  of  sleep,  by  the  necessity  of  listening  at  night  to 
the  confessions  of  his  pious  flock ;  and  his  shoes,  too, 
had  failed  him,  nothing  remaining  but  the  upper 
leather,  which  gave  him  little  comfort  among  the 
sharp  stones.  He  bore  up  manfully,  being  by  nature 
brave  and  light-hearted;  and  when  a  servant  of  the 
Jesuits  fell  into  the  water,  he  threw  off  his  cassock 
and  leaped  after  him.  His  strength  gave  out,  and 
the  man  was  drowned;  but  a  grateful  Jesuit  led 
him  aside,  and  requited  his  efforts  with  a  morsel  of 
bread. 2  A  wood  of  chestnut-trees  full  of  nuts  at 
length  stayed  the  hunger  of  the  famished  troops. 

It  was  Saint  Theresa's  day  when  they  approached 
the  lower  Mohawk  town.  A  storm  of  wind  and  rain 
set  in;  but,  anxious  to  surprise  the  enemy,  they 
pushed  on  all  night  amid  the  moan  and  roar  of  the 
forest,  —  over  slippery  logs,  tangled  roots,  and  oozy 
mosses,  under  dripping  boughs  and  through  saturated 
bushes.  This  time  there  was  no  want  of  good 
guides;  and  when  in  the  morning  they  issued  from 
the  forest,  they  saw,  amid  its  cornfields,  the  palisades 
of  the  Indian  stronghold.  They  had  two  small  pieces 
of  cannon  brought  from  the  lake  by  relays  of  men, 
but  they  did  not  stop  to  use  them.     Their  twenty 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dollier  de  Casson,  extract  given 
by  J.  Viger  in  appendix  to  Histoire  du  Montreal  (Montreal,  18G8). 

2  Dollier  de  Casson,  Histoire  du  Montreal,  a.  d.  16G5,  1666. 


256  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

drums  beat  the  charge,  and  they  advanced  to  seize 
the  place  by  coup-de-main.  Luckily  for  them,  a 
panic  had  seized  the  Indians:  not  that  they  were 
taken  by  surprise,  for  they  had  discovered  the 
approaching  French,  and,  two  days  before,  had  sent 
away  their  women  and  children  in  preparation  for  a 
desperate  fight;  but  the  din  of  the  drums,  which 
they  took  for  so  many  devils  in  the  French  service, 
and  the  armed  men  advancing  from  the  rocks  and 
thickets  in  files  that  seemed  interminable,  so  wrought 
on  the  scared  imagination  of  the  warriors  that  they 
fled  in  terror  to  their  next  town,  a  short  distance 
above.  Tracy  lost  no  time,  but  hastened  in  pursuit. 
A  few  Mohawks  were  seen  on  the  hills,  yelling  and 
firing  too  far  for  effect.  Repentigny,  at  the  risk  of  his 
scalp,  climbed  a  neighboring  height,  and  looked  down 
on  the  little  army,  which  seemed  so  numerous  as  it 
passed  beneath,  "that,"  writes  the  superior  of  the  Ur- 
sulines,  "  he  told  me  that  he  thought  the  good  angels 
must  have  joined  with  it:  whereat  he  stood  amazed." 
The  second  town  or  fort  was  taken  as  easily  as 
the  first;  so,  too,  were  the  third  and  the  fourth. 
The  Indians  yelled,  and  fled  without  killing  a  man ; 
and  still  the  troops  pursued,  following  the  broad 
trail  which  led  from  town  to  town  along  the  valley 
of  the  Mohawk.  It  was  late  in  the  afternoon  when 
the   fourth  town  was  entered,  ^  and  Tracy  thought 

1  Marie  dc  rincarnation  says  that  there  were  four  towns  in  all. 
I  follow  the  Acte  de  prise  de  possession,  made  on  the  spot.  Five  are 
here  mentioned. 


1666.]  VICTORY.  257 

that  his  work  was  done;  but  an  Algonquin  squaw 
who  had  followed  her  husband  to  the  war,  and  who 
had  once  been  a  prisoner  among  the  Mohawks,  told 
him  that  there  was  still  another  above.  The  sun 
was  near  its  setting,  and  the  men  were  tired  with 
their  pitiless  marching;  but  again  the  order  was 
given  to  advance.  The  eager  squaw  showed  the 
way,  holding  a  pistol  in  one  hand  and  leading 
Courcelle  with  the  other;  and  they  soon  came  in 
sight  of  Andaraqu^,  the  largest  and  strongest  of  the 
Mohawk  forts.  The  drums  beat  with  fury,  and  the 
troops  prepared  to  attack;  but  there  were  none  to 
oppose  them.  The  scouts  sent  forward  reported  that 
the  warriors  had  fled.  The  last  of  the  savage  strong- 
holds was  in  the  hands  of  the  French. 

"God  has  done  for  us,"  says  Mother  Mary,  "what 
he  did  in  ancient  days  for  his  chosen  people,  —  strik- 
ing terror  into  our  enemies,  insomuch  that  we  were 
victors  without  a  blow.  Certain  it  is  that  there  is 
miracle  in  all  this ;  for  if  the  Iroquois  had  stood  fast, 
they  would  have  given  us  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and  caused  our  army  great  loss,  seeing  how  they 
were  fortified  and  armed,  and  how  haughty  and  bold 
they  are." 

The  French  were  astonished  as  they  looked  about 
them.  These  Iroquois  forts  were  very  different 
from  those  that  Jogues  had  seen  here  twenty  years 
before,  or  from  that  which  in  earlier  times  set 
Champlain  and  his  Hurons  at  defiance.  The  Mohawks 
had  had  counsel  and  aid  from  their  Dutch  friends, 

VOL.  I. —  17 


258  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

and  adapted  their  savage  defences  to  the  rules  of 
European  art.  Andaraqud  was  a  quadrangle  formed 
of  a  triple  palisade,  twenty  feet  high,  and  flanked  by 
four  bastions.  Large  vessels  of  bark  filled  with 
water  were  placed  on  the  platforms  of  the  palisade 
for  defence  against  fire.  The  dwellings  which  these 
fortifications  enclosed  were  in  many  cases  built  of 
wood,  though  the  form  and  arrangement  of  the 
primitive  bark-lodge  of  the  Iroquois  seems  to  have 
been  preserved.  Some  of  the  wooden  houses  were  a 
hundred  and  twenty  feet  long,  with  fires  for  eight 
or  nine  families.  Here,  and  in  subterranean  caches^ 
was  stored  a  prodigious  quantity  of  Indian-corn  and 
other  provisions;  and  all  the  dwellings  were  sup- 
plied with  carpenters'  tools,  domestic  utensils,  and 
many  other  appliances  of  comfort.  i 

The  only  living  things  in  Andaraqu^,  when  the 
French  entered,  were  two  old  women,  a  small  boy, 
and  a  decrepit  old  man,  who,  being  frightened  by 
the  noise  of  the  drums,  had  hidden  himself  under 
a  canoe.  From  them  the  victors  learned  that  the 
Mohawks,  retreating  from  the  other  towns,  had 
gathered  here,  resolved  to  fight  to  the  last;  but  at 
sight  of  the  troops  their  courage  failed,  and  the 
cMef  was  first  to  run,  crying  out,  "Let  us  save 
ourselves,  brothers!  the  whole  world  is  coming 
against  us ! " 

A  cross  was  planted,  and  at  its  side  the  royal 
arms.  The  troops  were  drawn  up  in  battle  array, 
when  Jean  Baptiste  du  Bois,  an  officer  deputed  by 


1666.]  ENGLISH  JEALOUSY.  259 

Tracy,  advancing  sword  in  hand  to  the  front,  pro- 
claimed in  a  loud  voice  that  he  took  possession  in 
the  name  of  the  King  of  all  the  country  of  the 
Mohawks;  and  the  troops  shouted  three  times,  Vive 
le  Roi.^ 

That  night  a  mighty  bonfire  illumined  the  JMohawk 
forests;  and  the  scared  savages  from  their  hiding- 
places  among  the  rocks  saw  their  palisades,  their 
dwellings,  their  stores  of  food,  and  all  their  posses- 
sions turned  to  cinders  and  ashes.  The  two  old 
squaws  captured  in  the  town  threw  themselves  in 
despair  into  the  flames  of  their  blazing  homes. 
When  morning  came,  there  was  nothing  left  of 
Andaraqu6  but  smouldering  embers,  rolling  their 
pale  smoke  against  the  painted  background  of  the 
October  woods.  Te  Bewn  was  sung  and  mass  said ; 
and  then  the  victors  began  their  backward  march, 
—  burning,  as  they  went,  all  the  remaining  forts, 
with  all  their  hoarded  stores  of  corn,  except  such  as 
they  needed  for  themselves.  If  they  had  failed  to 
destroy  their  enemies  in  battle,  they  hoped  that 
winter  and  famine  would  do  the  work  of  shot  and 
steel. 

While  there  was  distress  among  the  Mohawks, 
there  was  trouble  among  their  English  neighbors, 
who  claimed  as  their  own  the  country  which  Tracy 
had  invaded.  The  English  authorities  were  the 
more  disquieted,  because  they  feared  that  the  lately 
conquered  Dutch  might  join  hands  with  the  French 

1  Acte  de  prise  de  possession,  17  Oct.,  1666. 


260  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

against  them.  When  Nicolls,  governor  of  New 
York,  heard  of  Tracy's  advance,  he  wrote  to  the 
governors  of  the  New  England  colonies,  begging 
them  to  join  him  against  the  French  invaders,  and 
urging  that  if  Tracy's  force  were  destroyed  or 
captured,  the  conquest  of  Canada  would  be  an  easy 
task.  There  was  war  at  the  time  between  the  two 
Crowns;  and  the  British  court  had  already  enter- 
tained this  project  of  conquest,  and  sent  orders  to 
its  colonies  to  that  effect.  But  the  New  England 
governors  —  ill  prepared  for  war,  and  fearing  that 
their  Indian  neighbors,  who  were  enemies  of  the 
Mohawks,  might  take  part  with  the  French  —  hesi- 
tated to  act,  and  the  affair  ended  in  a  correspondence, 
civil  if  not  sincere,  between  Nicolls  and  Tracy. ^ 
The  treaty  of  Brdda,  in  the  following  year,  secured 
peace  for  a  time  between  the  rival  colonies. 

The  return  of  Tracy  was  less  fortunate  than  his 
advance.  The  rivers,  swollen  by  autumn  rains, 
were  difficult  to  pass;  and  in  crossing  Lake  Cham- 
plain  two  canoes  were  overset  in  a  storm,  and  eight 
men  were  drowned.  From  St.  Anne,  a  new  fort 
built  early  in  the  summer  on  Isle  La  Motte,  near  the 
northern  end  of  the  lake,  he  sent  news  of  his  success 
to  Quebec,  where  there  was  great  rejoicing  and  a 
solemn  thanksgiving.  Signs  and  prodigies  had  not 
been  wanting  to  attest  the  interest  of  the  upper  and 
nether  powers  in  the  crusade  against  the  myrmidons 

^  See  the  correspondence  in  N.  Y.  Col.  Docs.,  iii.  118-156.  Com- 
pfirc  Hutchinson  Collection,  407,  and  Mass.  Hist.  Coll.,  xviii.  102. 


1666.]  THE  CURE  OF  ST.   ANNE.  261 

of  hell.  At  one  of  the  forts  on  the  Richelieu,  "  the 
soldiers,"  says  Mother  Mary,  "were  near  dying  of 
fright.  They  saw  a  great  fiery  cavern  in  the  sky, 
and  from  this  cavern  came  plaintive  voices  mixed 
with  frightful  howlings.  Perhaps  it  was  the  demons, 
enraged  because  we  had  depopulated  a  country 
where  they  had  been  masters  so  long,  and  had  said 
mass  and  sung  the  praises  of  God  in  a  place  where 
there  had  never  before  been  anything  but  foulness 
and  abomination." 

Tracy  had  at  first  meant  to  abandon  Fort  St. 
Anne;  but  he  changed  his  mind  after  returning  to 
Quebec.  Meanwhile  the  season  had  grown  so  late 
that  there  was  no  time  to  send  proper  supplies  to  the 
garrison.  Winter  closed,  and  the  place  was  not 
only  ill-provisioned,  but  was  left  without  a  priest. 
Tracy  wrote  to  the  superior  of  the  Sulpitians  at 
Montreal  to  send  one  without  delay ;  but  the  request 
was  more  easily  made  than  fulfilled,  for  he  forgot  to 
order  an  escort,  and  the  way  was  long  and  dangerous. 
The  stout-hearted  Dollier  de  Casson  was  told,  how- 
ever, to  hold  himself  ready  to  go  at  the  first  oppor- 
tunity. His  recent  campaigning  had  left  him  in  no 
condition  for  braving  fresh  hardships,  for  he  was 
nearly  disabled  by  a  swelling  on  one  of  his  knees. 
By  way  of  cure  he  resolved  to  try  a  severe  bleeding, 
and  the  Sangrado  of  Montreal  did  his  work  so 
thoroughly  that  his  patient  fainted  under  his  hands. 
As  he  returned  to  consciousness,  he  became  aware 
that  two  soldiers  had  entered  the  room.     They  told 


262  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

him  that  they  were  going  in  the  morning  to  Chambly, 
which  was  on  the  way  to  St.  Anne ;  and  they  invited 
him  to  go  with  them.  "Wait  till  the  day  after 
to-morrow,"  replied  the  priest,  "and  I  will  try." 
The  delay  was  obtained;  and  on  the  day  fixed  the 
party  set  out  by  the  forest  path  to  Chambly,  a  dis- 
tance of  about  four  leagues.  When  they  reached  it, 
Dollier  de  Casson  was  nearly  spent;  but  he  concealed 
his  plight  from  the  commanding  officer,  and  begged 
an  escort  to  St.  Anne,  some  twenty  leagues  farther. 
As  the  officer  would  not  give  him  one,  he  threatened 
to  go  alone,  on  which  ten  men  and  an  ensign  were 
at  last  ordered  to  conduct  him.  Thus  attended,  he 
resumed  his  journey  after  a  day's  rest.  One  of  the 
soldiers  fell  through  the  ice,  and  none  of  his  com- 
rades dared  help  him.  Dollier  de  Casson,  making 
the  sign  of  the  cross,  went  to  his  aid,  and,  more 
successful  than  on  the  former  occasion,  caught  him 
and  pulled  him  out.  The  snow  was  deep ;  and  the 
priest,  having  arrived  in  the  preceding  summer,  had 
never  before  worn  snow-shoes,  while  a  sack  of  cloth- 
ing, and  his  portable  chapel  which  he  carried  at  his 
back,  joined  to  the  pain  of  his  knee  and  the  effects 
of  his  late  bleeding,  made  the  march  a  purgatory. 

He  was  sorely  needed  at  Fort  St.  Anne.  There 
was  pestilence  in  the  garrison.  Two  men  had  just 
died  without  absolution,  while  more  were  at  the 
point  of  death,  and  praying  for  a  priest.  Thus  it 
happened  that  when  the  sentinel  descried  far  off, 
on  the  ice  of  Lake  Champlain,  a  squad  of  soldiers 


1666.]  THE  CURfi  OF  ST.   ANNE.  263 

approaching,  and  among  them  a  black  cassock,  every 
officer  and  man  not  sick  or  on  duty  came  out  with 
one  accord  to  meet  the  new-comer.  They  over- 
whelmed him  with  welcome  and  with  thanks.  One 
took  his  sack,  another  his  portable  chapel,  and  they 
led  him  in  triumph  to  the  fort.  Fii-st  he  made  a 
short  prayer,  then  went  his  rounds  among  the  sick, 
and  then  came  to  refresh  himself  with  the  officers. 
Here  was  La  Motte  de  la  Luciere,  the  commandant; 
La  Durantaye,  a  name  destined  to  be  famous  in 
Canadian  annals ;  and  a  number  of  young  subalterns. 
The  scene  was  no  strange  one  to  DoUier  de  Casson, 
for  he  had  been  an  officer  of  cavalry  in  his  time,  and 
fought  under  Turenne;^  a  good  soldier,  without 
doubt,  at  the  mess  table  or  in  the  field,  and  none  the 
worse  a  priest  that  he  had  once  followed  the  wars. 
He  was  of  a  lively  humor,  given  to  jests  and  mirth  ; 
as  pleasant  a  father  as  ever  said  Benedicite.  The 
soldier  and  the  gentleman  still  lived  under  the  cas- 
sock of  the  priest.  He  was  greatly  respected  and 
beloved;  and  his  influence  as  a  peace-maker,  which 
he  often  had  occasion  to  exercise,  is  said  to  have  been 
remarkable.  When  the  time  demanded  it,  he  could 
use  arguments  more  cogent  than  those  of  moral 
suasion.  Once,  in  a  camp  of  Algonquins,  when,  as 
he  was  kneeling  in  prayer,  an  insolent  savage  came 
to  interrupt  him,  the  father,  witliout  rising,  knocked 
the  intruder  flat  by  a  blow  of  his  fist ;  and  the  other 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dollier  de  Casson,  extracts  from 
copy  in  possession  of  the  late  Jacques  Viger. 


264  THE  MOHAWKS  CHASTISED.  [1666. 

Indians,  far  from  being  displeased,  were  filled  with 
admiration  at  the  exploit.  ^ 

His  cheery  temper  now  stood  him  in  good  stead ; 
for  there  was  dreary  work  before  him,  and  he  was 
not  the  man  to  flinch  from  it.  The  garrison  of  St. 
Anne  had  nothing  to  live  on  but  salt  pork  and  half- 
spoiled  flour.  Their  hogshead  of  vinegar  had  sprung 
a  leak,  and  the  contents  had  all  oozed  out.  They 
had  rejoiced  in  the  supposed  possession  of  a  reason- 
able stock  of  brandy ;  but  they  soon  discovered  that 
the  sailors,  on  the  voyage  from  France,  had  emptied 
the  casks  and  filled  them  again  with  salt-water.  The 
scurvy  broke  out  with  fury.  In  a  short  time,  forty 
out  of  the  sixty  men  became  victims  of  the  loathsome 
malady.  Day  or  night,  DoUier  de  Casson  and 
Forestier,  the  equally  devoted  young  surgeon,  had 
no  rest.  The  surgeon's  strength  failed,  and  the 
priest  was  himself  slightly  attacked  with  the  disease. 
Eleven  men  died ;  and  others  languished  for  want  of 
help,  for  their  comrades  shrank  from  entering  the 
infected  dens  where  they  lay.  In  their  extremity 
some  of  them  devised  an  ingenious  expedient. 
Though  they  had  nothing  to  bequeath,  they  made 
wills  in  which  they  left  imaginary  sums  of  money  to 
those  who  had  befriended  them;  and  thenceforth 
they  found  no  lack  of  nursing. 

In  the  intervals  of  his  labors,  Dollier  de  Casson 
would  run  to  and  fro  for  warmth  and  exercise  on  a 

1  Grandet,  Notice  manuscrite  sur  Dollier  de  Casson,  cited  by  Fail- 
Ion,  Colonic  Fran^aise,  iii.  395,  39G, 


1666-67.]  JESUITS  AND  IROQUOIS.  265 

certain  track  of  beaten  snow,  between  two  of  the 
bastions,  reciting  his  breviary  as  he  went,  so  that 
those  who  saw  him  might  have  thought  him  out  of 
his  wits.  One  day  La  Motte  called  out  to  him  as  he 
was  thus  engaged,  "Eh,  Monsieur  le  cur<?,  if  the 
Iroquois  should  come,  you  must  defend  that  bastion. 
My  men  are  all  deserting  me,  and  going  over  to  you 
and  the  doctor."  To  which  the  father  replied,  "Get 
me  some  litters  with  wheels,  and  I  will  bring  them 
out  to  man  my  bastion.  They  are  brave  enough 
now;  no  fear  of  their  running  away."  With  banter 
like  this,  they  sought  to  beguile  their  miseries;  and 
thus  the  winter  wore  on  at  Fort  St.  Anne.^ 

Early  in  spring  they  saw  a  troop  of  Iroquois 
approaching,  and  prepared  as  well  as  they  could  to 
make  fight ;  but  the  strangers  proved  to  be  ambassa- 
dors of  peace.  The  destruction  of  the  Mohawk 
towns  had  produced  a  deep  effect,  not  on  that  nation 
alone,  but  also  on  the  other  four  members  of  the 
league.  They  were  disposed  to  confirm  the  promises 
of  peace  which  they  had  already  made;  and  Tracy 
had  spurred  their  good  intentions  by  sending  them 
a  message  that  unless  they  quickly  presented  them- 
selves at  Quebec,  he  would  hang  all  the  chiefs  whom 
he  had  kept  prisoners  after  discovering  their  treach- 

1  The  above  curious  incidents  are  told  by  DoUier  de  Casson,  in  his 
Ili'stnire  du  Montreal,  preserved  in  manuscript  in  the  Mazarin  Library 
at  Paris.  He  gives  no  hint  tliat  the  person  in  question  was  himself, 
but  speaks  of  him  as  un  ecdesiastique.  His  identity  is,  however, 
made  certain  by  internal  evidence,  by  a  passage  in  the  Notice  of 
Grandet,  and  by  other  contemporary  allusions. 


266  THE   MOHAWKS   CHASTISED.  [1667. 

ery  in  the  preceding  summer.  The  threat  had  its 
effect:  deputies  of  the  Oneidas,  Onondagas,  Cayugas, 
and  Senecas  presently  arrived  in  a  temper  of  befitting 
humility.  The  Mohawks  were  at  first  afraid  to 
come;  but  in  April  they  sent  the  Flemish  Bastard 
with  overtures  of  peace,  and  in  July  a  large  deputa- 
tion of  their  chiefs  appeared  at  Quebec.  They  and 
the  rest  left  some  of  their  families  as  hostages,  and 
promised  that  if  any  of  their  people  should  kill  a 
Frenchman,  they  would  give  them  up  to  be  hanged.^ 
They  begged,  too,  for  blacksmiths,  surgeons,  and 
Jesuits  to  live  among  them.  The  presence  of  the 
Jesuits  in  their  towns  was  in  many  ways  an  advan- 
tage to  them;  while  to  the  colony  it  was  of  the 
greatest  importance.  Not  only  was  conversion  to 
the  Church  justly  regarded  as  the  best  means  of 
attaching  the  Indians  to  the  French  and  alienating 
them  from  the  English ;  but  the  Jesuits  living  in  the 
midst  of  them  could  influence  even  those  whom  they 
could  not  convert,  soothe  rising  jealousies,  counter- 
act English  intrigues,  and  keep  the  rulers  of  the 
colony  informed  of  all  that  was  passing  in  the 
Iroquois  towns.  Thus,  half  Christian  missionaries, 
half  political  agents,  the  Jesuits  prepared  to  resume 
the  hazardous  mission  of  the  Iroquois.  Frdmin  and 
Pierron  were  ordered  to  the  Mohawks,  Bruyas  to 
the  Oneidas,   and  three  others  were  named  for  the 

1  Lettre  du  Pere  Jean  Pierron,  de  la  Compagnie  de  Jesus,  escripte 
de  la  Motte  [Fort  Ste.  Anne]  sur  le  lac  Champlain,  le  Vline  d'aoust, 
1607. 


1667.]  TRACY'S  EXPEDITION.  267 

remaining  three  nations  of  the  league.  The  troops 
had  made  the  peace;  the  Jesuits  were  the  rivets  to 
hold  it  fast,  —  and  peace  endured  without  absolute 
rupture  for  nearly  twenty  years.  Of  all  the  French 
expeditions  against  the  Iroquois,  that  of  Tracy  was 
the  most  productive  of  good. 

Note.  —  On  Tracy's  expedition  against  the  Mohawks  compare 
Faillon,  Histoire  de  la  Colonie  Frangaise  au  Canada,  iii. 


END   OF   VOL.   I. 


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